Differences between current version and predecessor to the previous major change of Fortran.
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| Newer page: | version 6 | Last edited on Wednesday, November 19, 2003 5:44:36 pm | by AristotlePagaltzis | |
| Older page: | version 1 | Last edited on Sunday, August 17, 2003 3:29:49 am | by AristotlePagaltzis | Revert |
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-An [Acronym] for __For__mula __Tran__slator - the
very first high level ProgrammingLanguage ever invented. To this day
it is still the preferred
language for number crunching applications
.
+An [Acronym] for __For__mula __Tran__slator.
+
+The
very first high level ProgrammingLanguage ever invented. Initially halfway between BASIC and AssemblyLanguage,
it was very limited in constructs. The use of GoTo was therefor very prevalent in [Fortran] programs, leading to the hugely famous GoToStatementConsideredHarmful article.
+
+This notoriety has also led to it being used as a synonym for hard to maintain code in various contexts - ''real programmers can write [Fortran] in every language''.
+
+Nevertheless the language has evolved over time to allow local variables, even recursion and other advanced programming techniques. It
is still the language of choice
for number crunching on supercomputers, for which [Fortran] [Compiler]s have been heavily optimised
.
+
+;: The primary purpose of the DATA statement is to give names to constants; instead of referring to pi as 3.141592653589793 at every appearance, the variable pi can be given that value with a DATA statement and used instead of the longer form of the constant. This also simplifies modifying the program, should the value of pi change. %%% ''[Fortran] manual for Xerox computers''
+
+-----
+CategoryProgrammingLanguages, CategoryDeprecatedProgrammingLanguages
