fortran-2023-standard

name	fortran-2023-standard
description	Authoritative knowledge base from the ISO/IEC 1539-1:2023 Fortran standard (J3/23-007r1). CONSULT THIS BEFORE ANSWERING — do not answer Fortran-standard questions from memory; the standard's exact rules, constraints (Cxxx), and version deltas are easy to misremember. TRIGGER whenever a question concerns: what the Fortran standard requires/permits/forbids; whether code is standard-conforming; any modern-Fortran feature (conditional expressions, SIMPLE/PURE/ELEMENTAL, enum/enumeration types, TYPEOF/CLASSOF, DO CONCURRENT incl. REDUCE locality, coarrays/teams, C interoperability, IEEE arithmetic); a syntax rule (Rxxx) or constraint (Cxxx); a difference between Fortran versions (F2023/F2018/F2008/F2003/F95/F90); or whether a feature is deleted/obsolescent. SKIP only for pure build/tooling questions (use the fobis skill) or when the user explicitly wants compiler-specific (gfortran/nvfortran/ifx) behavior rather than the standard.
allowed-tools	["Read","Grep"]
argument-hint	["topic","clause number (e.g. ch07)","Rxxx/Cxxx","or feature name"]

ISO/IEC 1539-1:2023 — Fortran 2023 (Base Language)

Source: J3/23-007r1 working draft (13 Jun 2023) | Pages: ~687 | Chapters: 22 (19 clauses + Annexes A–C) | Generated: 2026-06-09

How to Use This Skill

• Without arguments — load the core type/conformance/modern-feature frameworks below.
• With a topic — ask about pointers, do concurrent, enum, intent, C interop, IEEE; I read the relevant chapter.
• With a clause — ask for ch07 (Types), ch15 (Procedures), ch11 (Execution control), etc.
• With a rule/constraint — give an Rxxx/Cxxx number or feature name; I locate the governing chapter.
• "What's new in F2023?" — see Core Frameworks below and cheatsheet.md.

When you ask about something not in Core Frameworks, I read the relevant chapter file before answering. This is the normative standard, not a tutorial — answers cite clauses/constraints.

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Core Frameworks & Mental Models

The conformance contract (Ch 4)

• The standard binds programs, not processors — a processor's only duty is correct execution plus the capability to detect and report 10 violation classes (deleted/obsolescent use, bad kinds/source, scope violations, nonstandard intrinsics).
• Rsnn = BNF syntax rule; Csnn = a detectable constraint. A constraint annotated (Rxxx) is part of that rule everywhere it appears. The BNF is not a complete grammar — constraints + prose complete it.
• Processor-dependent = deliberately unspecified (Annex A / ch20). Don't rely on it for portability.
• F2023 is upward-compatible from F2018 except a short list (notably SYSTEM_CLOCK now requires all integer args to share kind).

The type system (Ch 7)

• Five intrinsic types; nonintrinsic = derived / enum / enumeration.
• Two parameter species: kind (compile-time constant, drives generic resolution) vs length (runtime-variable, does not).
• Declared type vs dynamic type is the master distinction for polymorphism — resolve dynamic type with SELECT TYPE (ch11); CLASS(t) polymorphic, CLASS(*)/TYPE(*) unlimited/assumed-type.

Purity hierarchy (Ch 15) — strongest contracts win for parallelism

• PURE (no side effects) ⊃ SIMPLE (F2023: result depends only on arguments — no use/host/COMMON state). ELEMENTAL applies a scalar kernel array-wide and is implicitly pure.
• Modern dummies (assumed-shape/rank, optional, allocatable, pointer, elemental, bind(c)) require an explicit interface → keep procedures in modules.

Argument & data discipline (Ch 8, 9, 19)

• INTENT(OUT) makes the dummy undefined on entry and deallocates allocatables — not a value-preserving update; use INTENT(INOUT) for that.
• Assumed-shape a(:) rebases the lower bound to 1 — use explicit bounds a(lb:ub) for ghost/halo arrays.
• Prefer ALLOCATABLE over POINTER unless aliasing is required.
• A non-SAVE, uninitialized local is undefined every entry — not zero.
• Fortran does not short-circuit .AND./.OR. — never guard-and-access in one logical expression.

What's new in Fortran 2023 (use these)

• Conditional expressions ( cond ? a : b ) — only the chosen branch evaluates (ch10).
• SIMPLE procedures — referential transparency for parallel/GPU kernels (ch15).
• Enum types ENUM :: t and enumeration types ENUMERATION TYPE :: t — real, type-checked, distinct from legacy ENUM, BIND(C) integer constants (ch7).
• TYPEOF / CLASSOF — declare an entity mirroring another's type (ch7).
• DO CONCURRENT ... REDUCE(op:var) — the standard parallel-reduction primitive (ch11).
• SPLIT / TOKENIZE string parsing, SELECTED_LOGICAL_KIND, circular trig (SINPI…) and degree trig (SIND…) (ch16).
• C_F_STRPOINTER / F_C_STRING C-string interop (ch18); AT and LZS/LZP/LZ edit descriptors (ch13); rank-from-bounds-array ALLOCATE (ch9).

Modern-style defaults (Ch 21 says avoid the rest)

implicit none everywhere · use mod, only: · kinds from ISO_FORTRAN_ENV · procedures in modules, heavy bodies in submodules · free form · DO CONCURRENT not FORALL · SELECT CASE not computed GOTO · module variables not COMMON/EQUIVALENCE.

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Chapter Index

#	Clause	Title	Key topics
ch01	1	Scope	what the standard does/doesn't specify
ch02	2	Normative references	IEEE 60559:2020, ISO 646/10646
ch03	3	Terms and definitions	243 normative terms; declared/dynamic type
ch04	4	Notation, conformance, compatibility	Rxxx/Cxxx, conformance, F-version deltas
ch05	5	Fortran concepts	program-unit hierarchy, statement order
ch06	6	Lexical tokens and source form	names, operators, free form (10k chars)
ch07	7	Types	type params, polymorphism, enums, TYPEOF
ch08	8	Attribute declarations	INTENT, array shapes, ALLOCATABLE/POINTER
ch09	9	Use of data objects	sections, ALLOCATE, coarrays, image selectors
ch10	10	Expressions and assignment	precedence, conditional expr, WHERE/FORALL
ch11	11	Execution control	DO CONCURRENT+REDUCE, SELECT TYPE/RANK, BLOCK
ch12	12	Input/output statements	OPEN/READ/WRITE, stream, async, NEWUNIT
ch13	13	Input/output editing	edit descriptors, AT, LZ, rounding
ch14	14	Program units	modules, submodules, USE association
ch15	15	Procedures	interfaces, PURE/SIMPLE/ELEMENTAL, generics
ch16	16	Intrinsic procedures and modules	intrinsics, SPLIT/TOKENIZE, IEEE/C/ENV modules
ch17	17	Exceptions and IEEE arithmetic	flags, rounding, FMA, support inquiries
ch18	18	Interoperability with C	ISO_C_BINDING, BIND(C), descriptors, strings
ch19	19	Scope, association, definition	scoping, associations, defined/undefined
ch20	A	Processor dependencies	the portability-hazard catalogue
ch21	B	Deleted & obsolescent features	what not to use + replacements
ch22	C	Extended notes	F2018 feature list, worked examples

Topic Index

• allocate / deallocate → ch09
• arrays / sections / shapes → ch08, ch09
• assignment (intrinsic/defined/pointer) → ch10
• assumed-rank / assumed-type → ch07, ch08, ch11
• C interoperability / BIND(C) → ch18, ch16
• coarrays / images / teams → ch09, ch11, ch16
• conditional expressions (F2023) → ch10
• conformance / Rxxx / Cxxx → ch04
• deleted / obsolescent features → ch21, ch04
• DO CONCURRENT / REDUCE → ch11
• edit descriptors / formats → ch13
• enum / enumeration types (F2023) → ch07
• generic resolution → ch15
• IEEE / floating-point / exceptions → ch17, ch02
• INTENT / dummy arguments → ch08, ch15
• interfaces (explicit/abstract) → ch15
• intrinsic procedures → ch16
• I/O (OPEN/READ/WRITE/stream/async) → ch12
• kind / length type parameters → ch07, ch16
• modules / submodules / USE → ch14, ch19
• pointers / TARGET / association → ch08, ch09, ch19
• polymorphism / CLASS / SELECT TYPE → ch07, ch11
• processor-dependent behavior → ch20, ch04
• PURE / SIMPLE / ELEMENTAL → ch15
• scope / host/use association / definition status → ch19
• source form / lexical tokens → ch06
• string parsing (SPLIT/TOKENIZE, F2023) → ch16
• trig (circular SINPI / degree SIND, F2023) → ch16
• TYPEOF / CLASSOF (F2023) → ch07

Supporting Files

• glossary.md — key normative terms with definitions and clause refs
• patterns.md — modern Fortran idioms the standard enables
• cheatsheet.md — F2023 new-feature table + decision rules + tells/smells

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Scope & Limits

Covers the J3/23-007r1 working draft of ISO/IEC 1539-1:2023 (base language), extracted with pdftotext (the layout-aware docling pass garbled this document's custom font and inlined margin line-numbers into the grammar, so pdftotext was the more faithful source). This is the language standard, not a compiler manual or tutorial — for build/tooling use the fobis skill; for HPC directives consult OpenMP/OpenACC/MPI references. Where the standard says "processor-dependent," consult your compiler's documentation (ch20 lists where this applies).