This is possible if you do it in the following way, that is if you use the new continuation sign "&" at the end of the old line, but in position 73 so that it doesn't conflict with Fortran 77, and also choose the "&" sign as the almost arbitrary character in column 6, in order to get continuation according to Fortran 77. ... Comments are an incompatibility problem between Fortran 77 and Fortran 90, but of course not between fixed and free forms of Fortran 90 since the "!" is permitted in both. ...

Sometimes we require more than one line for a statement Print *, 'This is a long output line',& ' this is the second part',& ' and this is the third part!' Nowadays, in the free form, we continue a line with the symbol "&" (called ampersand), i.e. with the sign & at the end of the old line instead of an almost arbitrary character in column 6 of the new line. ... Exclamation mark in column 1 of course means a comment line also in the old fixed form. ... 3.1) What does the following line mean? ...