I had no compilation problems with g77. 300 format( 1000(a,$)) 1 Error: $ must the last specifier in format string at (1)
g77 documentation states:"A dollar sign at the end of an output format specification suppresses the newline at the end of the output."
Since this (a $ as format specifier) is an extension, there is nothing in the standard against this. On the other hand, all the compilers I have at hand accept this, so I think we might as well remove this contraint.
I think this can be reported as a bug. FX