When was fortran created

However, there was no string variable type. Complex numbers as a basic type were also added. Although Fortran became a standardized language early, many companies had their own extensions to it. From Wikibooks, open books for an open world. Why learn Fortran?

Fortran History Hello world Wikipedia has related information at Fortran. Category : Book:Fortran. Programs for the earliest computers consisted of sequences of numerical codes.

Each code represented a basic operation such as 'fetch a number from memory location X and put it in register A' or 'add the number in register A to the number in register B'. This style of programming was time-consuming and error-prone. Mistakes were difficult to find. By the time John Backus joined IBM as a scientific programmer in , it had become possible to write programs using mnemomics such as ADD in place of the numerical codes.

A special program which we would call an assembler today converted the mnemonics into the corresponding numerical codes. This made programming a little easier, but even a simple program required dozens of operations, and it was still difficult to track down mistakes.

Backus reasoned that it should be possible to create a programming language which allowed a series of calculations to be expressed in something resembling mathematical notation.

A translation program a compiler, in today's terminology would then convert it into the numerical codes which the computer understood. She is known for her independent films and documentaries, including one about Alexander Graham Bell. Updated February 23, Featured Video. Cite this Article Format. Bellis, Mary. Comparing Popular Programming Languages. Differences Between Compilers and Interpreters.

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