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FORTRAN is a constructive declarative language of programming that is particularly well suited to quantitative and scientific calculations.
It’s a prominent, powerful computational language used in benchmarking and ranking applications for the world’s greatest supercomputers. IBM created FORTRAN throughout the 1950s targeting scientific and technical purposes. Since then, it has become the accepted standard in scientific computing. Also, it has been used in compute-intensive areas, including weather forecasts, calculations, geoscience, physics, crystallographic activities, and computational chemistry for far more than six decades.
FORTRAN, or Formula Translation, seems to be a high-level programming language developed by John Backus in 1957 to speed up the programming system and make it even more understandable.
A brief explanation of FORTRAN and its history
The introduction of FORTRAN around 1957 was a watershed moment throughout the evolution of coding languages. Programming used to be done in machines or assembly languages, which required programmers to input binary and hexadecimal mathematical commands. Backus sought a better, faster approachable method to connect through computers after becoming frustrated with the tedious process of this kind of programming.
Backus led a dynamic workforce of ten International Business Machines (IBM) personnel throughout the three-year research period to build a unique language that blended an English abbreviation alongside algebraic equations.
Unproductive programmes were a bigger financial concern than the laborious and meticulous creation of machine language programming since computers were uncommon and exceedingly costly.
FORTRAN made it possible to write programming code quickly, which seems to be just as effective as those handwritten using machine language. With the development of an effective higher-level language, sometimes referred like a third-generation language, programming became more accessible among scientists and researchers, who’ve been key in increasing the use of such computer systems.
FORTRAN then became computing’s preferred language in the late 1950s because it allowed organic language programmes to run as effectively as hand-coded equivalents. It was upgraded several times during the late 1950s and early 1960s to keep pace with more high-level programming languages. Meanwhile, beyond the education institutions, fourth- and fifth-generation technologies began to replace FORTRAN throughout the 1970s fully. FORTRAN 77 was first launched around 1978, with FORTRAN 90 following around 1991, and enhancements throughout 1996, 2004, 2010, and 2018.
Differences between C++ and FORTRAN
C++ seems to be an object-oriented language of programming that supports flexibility and heredity in all of its characteristics; when integrated with its MODULE language components and TYPE, Fortran imitates a few object-oriented characteristics. Fortran 90, on the other hand, doesn’t support automatic succession.
Advanced FORTRAN provides array features which C++ cannot provide, such as array comprehensions. On the other end, FORTRAN seems to be easier to understand and also used when compared to C++ for statistical computing. Mathematical concepts, multidimensional arrays, and other exotic operations are all supported natively.
Once it comes to performance, C++ outperforms Fortran but not by a substantial margin. FORTRAN currently outperforms other languages in terms of processing speed.
Features of FORTRAN:
A compiler – Users can develop comprehensive programmes and afterwards run them through a compiler. In comparison, interpretive programming languages such as Python and JavaScript get processed and executed one line at a time. Even though this makes programming somewhat more difficult, it enables the compiler to write better effective source codes. It is indeed relatively unusual for FORTRAN programmes to still be quicker than identical Python programmes in normal usage situations.
Dynamic – FORTRAN applications may be written in various perspectives or techniques, including declarative, computational, object-oriented, and sometimes even multifunctional. Based on the problems users are trying to address, certain frameworks seem to be more applicable than others.
Advantages of FORTRAN:
- The term domain-specific language refers to a language that is specialised in being essentially a commonly used language in specific fields; FORTRAN seems to be a domain-specific language mostly in the sense that it was created for contributions to science, technology, and mathematics.
- FORTRAN seems to be a specialised language that seems to be incredibly significant to a limited group of individuals: researchers and professionals in specific fields. As a result, finding courses and websites regarding FORTRAN is challenging, and there are more prominent languages present in the current technological world.
- A highly structured language — Even though previously stated, this feature makes FORTRAN one very secure programming language and aids compilers in making efficient executable code. But on the other hand, it helps make it less adaptable and complicated, making it unsuitable for fast prototyping.
Conclusion
The article talks about FORTRAN, also known as “formula translation”. Fortran is a programming language developed in the 1950s that helped shape the programming world and made coding a lot more efficient throughout its development shortly.
