Fortran is a popular imperative programming language developed by IBM in the 1950s for scientific and engineering applications. Its popularity is due to its backward compatibility, gradual development of features, and fast compilers. It is easy to learn and portable, with Fortran 77 being the standard.
Fortran is an imperative computer programming language. Once written as FORTRAN, the programming language is also considered general purpose and procedural. It was developed in the 1950s by the International Business Machines Corporation (IBM) and was intended for use in scientific and engineering applications. Since its inception, Fortran has been consistently used for scientific and numerical computation, particularly in areas such as computational science and climate modeling. In fact, it is the most commonly used numeric programming language in existence.
Some speculate that Fortran achieved its popularity because it was designed before many of the other major languages. Others argue that its widespread use is due to the gradual addition and development of features vital to science and engineering users. Perhaps equally important is the fact that Fortran maintains its backward compatibility, adding new components, rather than deleting outdated features. Much of its popularity may be due to producing compilers that can handle faster code, making it well-suited for scientific use.
A team of IBM programmers, led by John Backus, is credited with helping develop Fortran, introducing the first compiler in 1957. It was created for an IBM 704 computer. Fortran, with its control structures and input/output components output, enjoyed rapid popularity. Soon, the team introduced compilers designed for use with other IBM computer models. Within a short period of time, other manufacturers felt compelled to make FORTRAN compilers suitable for their own computers, resulting in dozens of compilers by the early 1960s.
Unfortunately, creating so many different compilers has led to incompatibility. In 1966, this problem was addressed when an American national standard for the programming language was formed. However, this has not completely stemmed the tide of variations. Soon, further standardization was needed. Fortran 77 was designed to meet this need.
One of the features that distinguishes Fortran among other computer programming languages is its easy portability. It is also considered simple to master and straightforward. You don’t need to have a computer background to learn and use Fortran. However, the fact that it’s easy to learn doesn’t make it any less capable. It can be used effectively on sizable applications.
Protect your devices with Threat Protection by NordVPN
