What is Fortran, and where can I learn more about it?

Fortran is a general-purpose programming language that is especially popular among scientists and engineers. Its name comes from FORmulate and TRANslate. It is the oldest of the high-level languages, dating back to an IBM project in the mid-1950s. However, it is continually being revised and updated, with three ANSI standards (Fortran 77, Fortran 90, and Fortran 95) released.

There are a number of Fortran dialects, including F and ELF. F is a subset of Fortran 90 designed as a simple yet powerful language for beginning programmers. ELF, also a subset of Fortran 90, is similar to F, but is available only for Intel-based computers.

For more information about Fortran, visit the Fortran Company at:

Another source of information is the Fortran newsgroup comp.lang.fortran.

Also see:

• At IU, why isn't Numerical Recipes installed on any of the central systems?
• What is the current version of XL Fortran on Libra?
• On Libra, how do I link a Fortran job to IMSL and execute it?
• Finding help for statistical and mathematical computing at IU