Teaching old Fortran programmers new tricks

For a number of valid reasons, Fortran remains in widespread use. It can be difficult to get long-time Fortran programmers to accept the use of new software tools that are increasingly required to lower software costs. In order to gain acceptance for a new software tool, it is necessary for it to be easy to learn and use, as well as to provide new benefits. In the process of introducing the use of the Ratfor preprocessor for Fortran, a number of useful guidelines were defined for gaining the acceptance of any new software tool in an existing environment