The first character in each record (line) of formatted output defines a carriage control character to the lineprinter, often called ASA-character, for a previous name of the US Standardization Organization ANSI. ... When using VAX/VMS for output first on a file, which is to be printed later on paper, it is advisable to use the extension .DAT . ... You use the compiler switch -vms f77 -vms prog.f and get the control characters removed from the screen output. ...