Undergraduate research in computer sciences

Abstract

IN FORTRAN PROGRAMMING of extensive storage problems the programmer has to devise elaborate schemes to make use of available space. The programmer also has to define the extent of the storage before execution, even when the sizes of the various data blocks are unknown. These requirements place severe restrictions on the efficient use of the size of the storage—the inability to re-use no longer needed space and the inability to specify storage no larger than needed. FODESAR has been devised using FORTRAN to provide the programmer with a dynamic storage allocation and relocation scheme which would allow for varying programmer's needs during execution.The FODESAR package has been developed in such a way that it can handle any type of problem which can be reduced to a list process problem. It has the capability of linking data blocks together to form complex list structures. However, the main impetus for the original package was matrix operation with dynamic storage allocation and relocation, and as a result extensive work has been completed in this area. One should keep in mind that FODESAR is a general storage scheme even though throughout the description matrix examples and terminology are used; also since FODESAR is written in FORTRAN, it is adaptable to most machines and can easily be extended by adding further routines.At present, FODESAR is under development. For this reason many of the procedures outlined below may undergo substantial revisions during implementation.