DCL:MATH1:Summary:FORTRAN77 Standard
Intrinsic functions such as sin and cos must be provided in
advance by the implementation of the FORTRAN standard, but the FORTRAN standard
allows implementations to provide functions that are not intrinsic to the
FORTRAN standard. Therefore, implementations normally have more intrinsic
functions that those defined by the FORTRAN standard. Needless to say, the names
of the extended intrinsic functions are totally different for different
implementations. In other words, a function name that does not exist in the
FORTRAN standard and is not declared by either the EXTERNAL or INTRINSIC
statement may be treated as either and intrinsic or external function depending
on the implementation used.
For example, if you define an external function and the name happens to be
identical to an intrinsic function of the implementation, later reference to the
function may call the function provided by the implementation and not the
function defined by the user. Since a function name is limited to less than 6
characters and there is a limit to the variations of ideas for names, such
conditions are more common than some would expect. However, when a program runs
away due to this trouble, it is rather difficult to determine the cause, because
the program written by the user is correct.
In order to write a program that is not implementation-dependent, it
is best to specify all external functions for each program unit using the
EXTERNAL statement. Furthermore, when inquiring about implementation-specific
functions that does not exist in the FORTRAN standard, they should be specified
using the INTRINSIC statement.
Of course, all functions provided by the DCL are "external functions." To the implementation, all of the programs in DCL are "user programs," and they are not to be mistaken as intrinsic functions simply because they have been provided for you.