Fortran: tricks and tips for scientific programming
 The Fortran Automatic Coding System for the IBM 704 EDPM. (Public domain picture)
(Do not refer to the above manual to achieve specific skills in Fortran coding, as such manual is nowadays obsolete) |
Fortran is a high level language software (or autocode), specifically designed for scientific purposes. The name itself is an acronym for FORmula TRANslation, i.e. it was developed with the idea to make it a translator of mathematical formulas in terms of computational operations executable by a machine. FORTRAN has been developed by a team directed by John Warner Backus. Backus also worked on the first reference manual on FORTRAN (or Fortran after 1990), which has been published in 1956. The first compiler has been released in 1957. Such version is now obsolete and does not support most of the contemporary programming features, like dynamical memory allocation, modules, recursive call to an external procedure ecc... for more detailed information about the Fortran history you might start your journey by referring to the Wikipedia web page.
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