HP Fortran Programmer's Reference (September 2007)

Glossary
constant expression
Glossary 673
built-in functions %REF and %VAL—HP
extensions that can be used to change
argument-passing rules in procedure
references.
byte A group of contiguous bits starting on
an addressable boundary. In HP machines, a
byte is 8 bits in length.
C
character A digit, letter, or other symbol in
the character set. See Appendix B,
“Character set”.
character string A sequence of zero or
more consecutive characters.
column-major order The default storage
method for arrays in HP Fortran 90.
Memory representation of an array is such
that the columns are stored contiguously. For
example, given the array a(2,3), element
a(1,1) would be stored in the first location,
element a(2,1)in the second location,
element a(1,2)in the third location, and so
on. See also row-major order.
common block A block of memory for
storing variables. A common block is a
global entity that may be referenced by one
or more program units.
compile-line option A flag that can be
specified with the f90 command line to
override the default actions of the HP
Fortran compiler.
compiler directive A specially-formatted
comment within a source program that
affects how the program is compiled.
Compiler directives are not part of the
Fortran 90 Standard. In HP Fortran 90,
compiler directives provide control over
source listing, optimization, and other
features.
component A constituent that is part of a
derived type. A derived type may consist of
one or more components. For example,
time%hour refers to the hour component of
time (and time is a variable whose data
type is a derived type defined in the
program).
conformable Two arrays are
conformable if both arrays have the same
rank (number of dimensions) and the same
extent (number of elements for each
dimension). A scalar is conformable with
any array.
connected (1) A unit is connected if it
refers to an external file. (2) An external
file is connected if a unit refers to it. In both
cases, connection is established either by the
OPEN statement or by preconnection. See also
preconnected.
constant A data object that retains the
same value during a program’s execution. A
constant’s value is established when a
program is compiled. A constant is either a
literal constant or a named constant.
constant expression An expression
whose value does not vary during the
program’s execution. A constant
expression’s operands are all constants.