9.1 RATFOR syntax

A sample RATFOR program is

@r
@
@a
program main
{
integer k;
real fcn, x;

for(k=0; k<10; k++)
        {
        x = fcn(k);

        if(x < 0.0)
                {
                x = 0.0;
                break;
                }
        }
}

The concluding brace of a function is translated into an END statement. Note the use of semicolons to terminate statements, braces to delimit compound statements, ‘<’ instead of ‘.LT.’, the C-like for construction, and the ‘k++’ expression.

Constructions like ‘k++’ or ‘k -= l + 1’ must be used with great care. They translate to statements involving ‘=’ signs, so they can be used only where simple statements are allowed, not essentially anywhere as in C (for example, they cannot be used as function arguments).