Abstract data types in Fortran 90

摘要

Progress in programming languages has been marked by successive waves of new techniques, each accompanied by miraculous claims from its proponents. Only after a certain time lag do these techniques become standardized. The functionality required to support one of these techniques, abstract data types (ADTs), is now part of the latest Fortran standard, but the newest wave is object orientation (OO). This paper describes the implementation of ADTs in Fortran and speculates on whether the language will withstand the OO onslaught.