Fortran compound logical expression

Hi guys,

This is my first time in this community, so please forgive me if my question is sort of stupid.

I've been programming in Fortran but never claimed to be a programmer, so without further adieu here is my question:

I noticed that:

c**************************************************

real*8 :: x, y, b, c
if ((x .lt. b) .and. (y .gt. c))

is not equal to:

c******************************************

real*8 :: x, y, b, c
logical :: l1, l2

l1=(x.lt.b)

l2=(y.gt.c)

if (l1 .and. l2)

Any idea why?

I am using gfortran.

Regards,

Abedin