Fortran is a 63 y.o. programming language developed by IBM for scientific and engineering applications. Its name is an acronym from FORmula TRANslation , and still being in use for that purpose.
It’s a general-purpose programming language, but best suited for computationally intensive areas like computational physics, computational chemistry, high-performance computing and so.
Many programming languages were based on or influenced by, Fortran. And it has received many updates among the years, last one in 2018.
Used it back in the 80's. Learned it for an NEC in Computerized Automatic Test Equipment. Used it sparingly for the next four years. Taught it a little as a navy instructor. Not a hater.
Never programmed on the job, but I had a Fortran course when I was a student and used it a very little bit during a summer job (to punch cards of a specific color, ha ha!).
I will remember to the end of my life the dreaded LINKAGE EDITOR CANNOT CONTINUE. :x
That being said, Fortran has become a slick language. Here's a free compiler with a nice IDE (does C++ too): https://www.silverfrost.com/.
And there's also an Algol 60 somewhere, for ed. :mrgreen:
Built a FORTRAN program for a USF class (in mathematical programming) that would solve a matrix algebra problem. I was rather proud of it.
The biggest impact on me was that it improved my BASIC programming skills. Got much more used to not using line numbers, and actually using structured flow instead of spaghetti code (GOTO's for days). Then all that "Visual" and "Object-Oriented" stuff came out and I quit programming. Stayed out of any kind of coding until I discovered SQL.