FORTRAN (redirected from FORTRAN (programming language))

FORTRAN: see programming language.

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FORTRAN

Procedural computer programming language developed for numerical analysis by John W. Backus and others at IBM in 1957. The name derives from FORmula TRANslation. For many years it was the most widely used high-level language for scientific and engineering computations. Though other languages, such as various versions of C, are now popular for such uses, FORTRAN is still the language of choice for numerical analysis. It has been revised several times and now includes capabilities for handling structured data, dynamic (“on-the-fly”) data allocation, recursions (procedures that call themselves), and other features.

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(FORmula TRANslator) The first high-level programming language and compiler, developed in 1954 by IBM. It was originally designed to express mathematical formulas, and although it is used occasionally for business applications, it is still the most widely used language for scientific, engineering and mathematical problems.

FORTRAN IV is an ANSI standard, but FORTRAN V has various proprietary versions. The following FORTRAN example converts Fahrenheit to Celsius:

   WRITE(6,*) 'Enter Fahrenheit '
   READ(5,*) XFAHR
   XCENT = (XFAHR - 32) * 5 / 9
   WRITE(6,*) 'Celsius is ',XCENT
   STOP
   END

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(language)

Fortran - (Formula Translation) The first and, for a long time, the most widely used programming language for numerical and scientific applications. The original versions lacked recursive procedures and block structure and had a line-oriented syntax in which certain columns had special significance. There have been a great many versions. The name is often written "FORTRAN", harking back to the days before computers were taught about lower case, but ANSI decreed, in about 1985 via the ANSI FORTRAN Technical Committee TC, that it should be "Fortran". See also: Fortrash.