RATFOR(1)

NAME
ratfor - Preprocessor for Rational Fortran

SYNOPSIS
ratfor [-l n] [-C] [-o output] input

PARAMETERS

-l n
    user sets starting label n

-o output
    specify output file, otherwise it is stdout

-C  keep comments in (useful for compiler directives)

DESCRIPTION
Ratfor has the following syntax:

prog: stat prog stat

stat: if (...) stat if (...) stat else stat while (...) stat repeat stat repeat stat until (...) for (...;...;...) stat do ... stat switch (intexpr) { case val[,val]: stmt ... default: stmt } break n next n return (...) digits stat { prog } or [ prog ] or $( prog $) anything unrecognizable

where stat is any Fortran or Ratfor statement, and intexpr is an expression that resolves into an integer value. A statement is terminated by an end-of-line or a semicolon. The following translations are also performed. < .lt. <= .le. == .eq. != .ne. ^= .ne. ~= .ne. >= .ge. > .gt. | .or. & .and. ! .not. ^ .not. ~ .not.

Integer constants in bases other that decimal may be specified as n%dddd... where n is a decimal number indicating the base and dddd... are digits in that base. For bases > 10, letters are used for digits above 9. Examples: 8%77, 16%2ff, 2%0010011. The number is converted the equivalent decimal value using multiplication; this may cause sign problems if the number has too many digits.

String literals ("..." or '...') can be continued across line boundaries by ending the line to be continued with an underline. The underline is not included as part of the literal. Leading blanks and tabs on the next line are ignored; this facilitates consistent indentation.

include file

will include the named file in the input.

define (name,value) or define name value

defines name as a symbolic parameter with the indicated value. Names of symbolic parameters may contain letters, digits, periods, and underline character but must begin with a letter (e.g. B.FLAG). Upper case is not equivalent to lower case in parameter names.

string name "character string" or string name(size) "character string"

defines name to be an integer array long enough to accomodate the ASCII codes for the given character string, one per word. The last word of name is initialized to the symbolic parameter EOS, and indicates the end of string.

SEE ALSO
f77(1), f2c(1)

HISTORY
Derived from a preprocessor distributed by the University of Arizona (not derived from AT&T code). Closely corresponds to the preprocessor described in the "SOFTWARE TOOLS" book.

BUGS
The switch statment switches on an integer valued expression. It should switch on an integer variable. The reason is that "implicit undefined" "implicit null" is unusable because the switch is done on a new variable that is not declared or declarable by the programmer who cannot guess its name. (This is not really a bug but a design error in both AT&T ratfor and this public domain ratfor).

COPYING
This code is in the public domain. In other words, all rights are granted to all recipients, the public at large.