This is similar to PR 32151 $ gfortran --version GNU Fortran (GCC) 4.3.0 20071109 (experimental) <snip>
$cat aa.f90 program aa implicit none real(kind=8)::r1=0 if ((3*r1)**2)<0) stop end $ gfortran -c aa.f90 aa.f90:4.14: if ((3*r1)**2)<0) stop 1 Error: Cannot assign to a named constant at (1) It's an extra parenthesis (or, arguably, a missing parenthesis ;-). Who's trying to assign anything??! -- Summary: Wrong error message for syntax error Product: gcc Version: 4.3.0 Status: UNCONFIRMED Severity: normal Priority: P3 Component: fortran AssignedTo: unassigned at gcc dot gnu dot org ReportedBy: terry at chem dot gu dot se GCC host triplet: x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu http://gcc.gnu.org/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=34325