Fortran Based Variables
=======================
Fortran (at least, the Sun and SGI dialects of FORTRAN-77) has a
feature which allows allocating arrays with `malloc', but which avoids
blurring the line between arrays and pointers the way that C does. In
stabs such a variable uses the `b' symbol descriptor.
For example, the Fortran declarations
real foo, foo10(10), foo10_5(10,5)
pointer (foop, foo)
pointer (foo10p, foo10)
pointer (foo105p, foo10_5)
produce the stabs
foo:b6
foo10:bar3;1;10;6
foo10_5:bar3;1;5;ar3;1;10;6
In this example, `real' is type 6 and type 3 is an integral type
which is the type of the subscripts of the array (probably `integer').
The `b' symbol descriptor is like `V' in that it denotes a
statically allocated symbol whose scope is local to a function; see
Note:Statics. The value of the symbol, instead of being the address
of the variable itself, is the address of a pointer to that variable.
So in the above example, the value of the `foo' stab is the address of
a pointer to a real, the value of the `foo10' stab is the address of a
pointer to a 10-element array of reals, and the value of the `foo10_5'
stab is the address of a pointer to a 5-element array of 10-element
arrays of reals.