This section defines the rules for MPI language binding in general and for Fortran, ANSI C, and C++, in particular. (Note that ANSI C has been replaced by ISO C. References in MPI to ANSI C now mean ISO C.) Defined here are various object representations, as well as the naming conventions used for expressing this standard. The actual calling sequences are defined elsewhere.
MPI bindings are for Fortran 90, though they are designed to be usable in Fortran 77 environments.
Since the word PARAMETER is a keyword in the Fortran language, we use the word ``argument'' to denote the arguments to a subroutine. These are normally referred to as parameters in C and C++, however, we expect that C and C++ programmers will understand the word ``argument'' (which has no specific meaning in C/C++), thus allowing us to avoid unnecessary confusion for Fortran programmers.
Since Fortran is case insensitive, linkers may use either lower case or upper case when resolving Fortran names. Users of case sensitive languages should avoid the ``mpi_'' and ``pmpi_'' prefixes.