>Does the EXTERNAL ARRAY command not waste a tiny fraction of a second?
I am not sure; does it actually compile? It might, but I am not sure. It really only informs the compiler that the specified array is NOT a procedure, so I would think that it isn't required in the compiled program, but perhaps it is included anyway.
Difference in opinions hath cost many millions of lives: for instance, whether flesh be bread, or bread be flesh; whether whistling be a vice or a virtue; whether it be better to kiss a post, or throw it into the fire... (from Gulliver's Travels)
