Token continuation

[IanH]

This silly litle example:

[fortran]PROGRAM token_continuation
  IMPLICIT NONE
! Note there's always a blank before the variable name.
  INTEGER&
& this_is_ok        ! "Double-&" continuation
  INTEGER &
and_so_is_this      ! Blank on previous line
  INTEGER&
 but_this_is_not    ! Blank on the continuation line
END PROGRAM token_continuation
[/fortran]

generates this:

[plain]>ifort /check:all /warn:all /stand:f03 /standard-semantics token_continuation.f90
Intel Visual Fortran Compiler XE for applications running on IA-32, Version 12.0.4.196 Build 20110427
Copyright (C) 1985-2011 Intel Corporation.  All rights reserved.

token_continuation.f90(9): error #5274: Token incorrectly continued across lines

 but_this_is_not    ! Blank on the next line
^
...variable not used warnings...
compilation aborted for token_continuation.f90 (code 1)
[/plain]

One for the philosophers - is the third INTEGER token really being continued here?

[Steven_L_Intel1]

No, it is not - the compiler is wrong. The standard is quite clear on this (emphasis mine):

If a noncharacter context is to be continued, an "&" shall be the last nonblank character on the line, or the last
nonblank character before an "!". There shall be a later line that is not a comment; the statement is continued
on the next such line. If the first nonblank character on that line is an "&", the statement continues at the next
character position following that "&"; otherwise, it continues with the first character position of that line.

I will let the developers know - thanks. Issue ID is DPD200170042.

[Steven_L_Intel1]

A fix for this is planned for a release later this year. Curiously, if you start the continued line with more than one blank, it's ok.