The EXTERNAL statement has the same syntax as a GLOBAL statement, and is its converse: it states that the variables, or other objects, named in it are not in the storage belonging to the current program, but instead that their address are to be obtained, on linkage, from other external subprograms, or the main program, in which they have been declared GLOBAL.
This does not change any objects mentioned in it from variables to subprograms: the EXTERNAL statement in FORTRAN does not correspond to this statement; instead, use the RNAME statement to indicate subroutine names to be passed as arguments.
Note that the form name:character-constant allows the use of symbols from programs written in other languages which might allow symbols within variable names not allowed in FALCON (such as @ and #, for example).