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<A HREF="toc.html">Table of Contents</A><P>
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<P>Previous: <A HREF="lbAL.html">NEW FEATURES</A><HR><P>
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<A NAME="lbAM"> </A> <H2>BUGS</H2>
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<B>ftnchek</B> still has much room for improvement.
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Your feedback is appreciated. We want to know about any bugs you notice.
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Bugs include not only cases in which <B>ftnchek</B> issues an error message
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where no error exists, but also if <B>ftnchek</B> fails to issue a warning when
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it ought to. Note, however, that <B>ftnchek</B> is not intended to catch all
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syntax errors (see <A HREF="lbAK.html">section on Limitations</A>).
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Also, it is not considered a bug for a variable to be
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reported as used before set, if the reason is that the usage of the
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variable occurs prior in the text to where the variable is set. For
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instance, this could occur when a GOTO causes execution to loop backward
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to some previously skipped statements. <B>ftnchek</B> does not analyze the
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program flow, but assumes that statements occurring earlier in the text
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are executed before the following ones.
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We especially want to know if <B>ftnchek</B> crashes for any reason. It is
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not supposed to crash, even on programs with syntax errors. Suggestions
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are welcomed for additional features which you would find useful. Tell
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us if any of <B>ftnchek</B>'s
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messages are incomprehensible. Comments on the
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readability and accuracy of this document are also welcome.
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You may also suggest support for additional extensions to the
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Fortran language. These will be included only if it is felt that the
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extensions are sufficiently widely accepted by compilers.
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If you find a bug in <B>ftnchek</B>,
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first consult the list of known bugs
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below to see if it has already been reported. Also check the <A HREF="lbAK.html">section
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entitled ``Limitations and Extensions''</A> above for restrictions
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that could be causing the problem. If you do not find the problem
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documented in either place, then send a report including
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The operating system and CPU type on which <B>ftnchek</B> is running.
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The version of <B>ftnchek</B> and values of any environment options or
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settings defined in startup file. (Capturing the output of ftnchek
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-help is useful for this.)
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A brief description of the bug.
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If possible, a small sample program showing the bug.
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The report should be sent to the following address:
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<A HREF="mailto:moniot@fordham.edu">moniot@fordham.edu</A><BR>
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Highest priority will be given to bugs which cause <B>ftnchek</B> to crash.
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Certain problems that arise when checking large programs can be fixed
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by increasing the sizes of the data areas in <B>ftnchek</B>. (These
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problems are generally signaled by error messages beginning with ``Oops''.)
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The simplest way to increase the table sizes is by
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recompiling <B>ftnchek</B> with the LARGE_MACHINE macro name
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defined. Consult the makefile and README file for the
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The following is a list of known bugs.
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Bug: Used-before-set message is suppressed for any variable which
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is used as the loop index in an implied-do loop, even if it was in
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fact used before being set in some earlier statement.
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For example, consider J in the statement
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WRITE(5,*) (A(J), J=1,10)
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Here <B>ftnchek</B> parses the I/O expression,
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A(J), where J is used, before it parses the implied loop
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where J is set. Normally this would cause
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<B>ftnchek</B> to report a spurious used-before-set warning for J.
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Since this report is usually in error and occurs fairly commonly,
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<B>ftnchek</B> suppresses the warning for J altogether.
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Prognosis: A future version of <B>ftnchek</B> is planned which will handle
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implied-do loops correctly.
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Bug: Variables used (not as arguments) in statement-function
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subprograms do not have their usage status updated when the statement
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Prognosis: To be fixed in a future version of <B>ftnchek</B>.
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Bug: VAX version does not expand wildcards in filenames on the
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command line if they are followed without space by an option, e.g.
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ftnchek *.f/calltree would not expand the *.f.
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This is because VMS-style options without intervening
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space are not supported by the GNU shell_mung routine that is used
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Prognosis: unlikely to be fixed.
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Bug: checking for nonstandard format edit descriptors is done only in
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FORMAT statements, not in character strings used as formats.
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Prognosis: may be fixed someday.
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