What is Fortran?

Fortran is a necessary computer programming language. Once the programming language is written as Fortran, it is also considered a general purpose and procedural. It was developed in the 1950s. International Business Machines Corporation (IBM) and was intended for use in scientific and engineering applications. Fortran has been constantly used since its design for scientific and numerical computer techniques, especially in areas such as computational sciences and climate modeling. In fact, it is the most commonly used numerical programming language in existence.

Some speculate that Fortran has achieved its popularity because it was designed in front of many other main languages. Others argue that its wide use is due to gradual addition and development of functions necessary for users of science and technology. Perhaps equally important is the fact that Fortran maintains its compatibility with older versions and adds new components, instead of eliminating obsolete functions. Good Deal its popularity could have been caused by the production of compilations capable of handling a faster code, which is particularly suitable for scientific use.

IBM programmers, led by John Backus, are attributed in cooperation for Fortran development and introduced the first compiler in 1957. It was created for the IBM 704. Fortran, with its control structures and input/output components, enjoyed rapid popularity. The team soon introduced compilers designed for use with other IBM computer models. In a short time, other manufacturers felt forced to create Fortran compilers to suit their own computers, resulting in dozens of compilations until the early 1960s.

Unfortunately, the creation of so many different compilations has led to incompatibility. In 1966, this figure was solved when an American national standard for programming language was created. It has grown upAnd the influx of variations. Soon another standardization was needed. Fortran 77 was designed to meet this need.

One of the features that makes Fortran stand out among other languages ​​for computer programming is easy portability. It is also considered simple to handle and straightforward. It is not necessary to have a background on computers to learn and use Fortran. However, the fact that it is easy to learn does not mean that it is less capable. It can be used effectively on considerable applications.