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Programming Language

Fortran

Also Known As Formula Translation
Procedural Language

Fortran, from Formula Translation, is a programming language released by IBM in 1957 for scientific and engineering computation, and is generally regarded as the first widely used high level programming language, letting programmers write formulas in something closer to ordinary mathematical notation instead of machine instructions. Designed by a team led by John Backus, it remains in active use today in high performance scientific computing, and its early success helped establish that programs written in a human readable language could run about as fast as hand written machine code, a claim doubted by many at the time.

Facts
First Released
1957 1
Paradigm
Imperative, procedural 2
Significance
The first widely used high level programming language, proving that compiled code could rival hand written machine code in speed. 2
Classification
Typing Discipline
Statically Typed 1
Typing Discipline
Strongly Typed 1
FAQs

What does the name Fortran stand for?

Fortran comes from Formula Translation. Its first manual called it a Formula Translating System.

The name Fortran comes from Formula Translation. The first manual for the language described it as a Formula Translating System, and printed the name in small capitals, Fortran. IBM delivered the first Fortran compiler in April 1957, built for scientific and engineering computation, where the point of the name was letting programmers write formulas in something closer to ordinary mathematical notation than machine instructions.
Connections

Follows Typing Discipline

Static Typing, Concepts
Strong Typing, Concepts

In Field

Software Engineering, Fields
Source Computer: A History of the Information MachineMartin Campbell-Kelly and William Aspray

Influenced

ALGOL, Programming Languages
Source Wikidata: ALGOL
BASIC, Programming Languages
Source Wikidata: BASIC
Julia, Programming Languages
Source Wikidata: Julia
MUMPS, Programming Languages
Source Wikidata: MUMPS
PL/I, Programming Languages
Source Wikidata: PL/I
Wolfram Language, Programming Languages
Source Wikidata: Wolfram Language

Invented By

John Backus, Pioneers
Source Wikidata: Fortran
Additional Source ACM A.M. Turing Award Citations
In the Other Atlases

Developed By

IBM

Also in Business Atlas: the developer of this subject.

Sources
1. Wikidata: Fortran
  • Wikidata Q83303, class allow-list match (w-wdresolver-0926)
  • Wikidata Q83303 P571 (inception)
  • Wikidata Q83303 P7078 (typing discipline)
View the Source
2. Computer: A History of the Information Machine
Martin Campbell-Kelly and William Aspray, Basic Books, 1996
Wikipedia: Fortran
Wikimedia FoundationLead section
Quote, Lead section
Fortran (; formerly FORTRAN) is a third-generation, compiled, imperative programming language designed for numeric computation and scientific computing.
View the Source
ACM A.M. Turing Award Citations
Association for Computing MachineryInvented By: John BackusView the Source
Wikidata: Julia
Influenced: JuliaView the Source
Wikidata: MUMPS
Influenced: MUMPSView the Source
Wikidata: Wolfram Language
Influenced: Wolfram LanguageView the Source
Programming Language Database (PLDB): Fortran - PLDB
Programming Language Database (PLDB)In Group: Early High-Level Languages and Coding Systems, Page text
Quote, In Group: Early High-Level Languages and Coding Systems, Page text
Originally developed by IBM in the 1950s
View the Source
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