EASTERN MEDITERRANEAN UNIVERSITY MECHANICAL ENGINEERING DEPARTMENT
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EASTERN MEDITERRANEAN UNIVERSITY MECHANICAL ENGINEERING DEPARTMENT |
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Programming in generalA program is the tool a user employs to exploit the power of the computer. A program is written in a language which is understood by the computer hardware. A program consists of a sequence of steps which when executed result in a task being carried out. Execution means that the computer is able to interpret each step (instruction), interpretation refers to understanding what is required and instructing the hardware to carry it out. Each instruction might require a calculation to be performed, or a decision to be selected, or some information to be stored or retrieved. The nature of the instruction depends on what programming language is used. Each programming language has its own set of statements. FORTRAN HistoryFortran (mathematical FORmula TRANslation system) was originally developed in 1954 by IBM. Fortran was one the first to allow the programmer to use a higher level language rather than machine code (0s and 1s) or assembly language (using mnemonics). This resulted in programs being easier to read, understand and debug and saved the programmer from having to work with the details of the underlying computer architecture. In 1958 the second version was released with a number of additions (subroutines, functions, common blocks). A number of other companies then started developing their own versions of compilers (programs which translate the high level commands to machine code) to deal with the problem of portability (machine dependency). In 1962 Fortran IV was released. This attempted to standardize the language in order to work independent of the computer (as long as the Fortran IV compiler was available!) In 1966 the first ANSI (American National Standards Institute) standard was released which defined a solid base for further development of the language. In 1978 the second ANSI standard was released which standardized extensions, allowed structured programming, and introduced new features for the IF construct and the character data type. The third ANSI standard was released in 1991, with a new revision expected within 10 years. ANSI StandardFortran 90 is a superset of Fortran 77. New facilities for array type operations, new methods for specifying precision, free form, recursion, dynamic arrays etc. were introduced. Despite that the whole Fortran77 is included the new ANSI standard proposes that some of the Fortran77 features are obsolete and will be removed in the next version. In theory a Fortran 77 program should compile successfully with a Fortran 90 compiler with minor changes. This is the last time a reference to Fortran 77 is made and it is recommended that programmers new to Fortran not to consult any Fortran 77 books. The Fortran 90 version was augmented with a number of new features because previously modern developments were not accommodated. Developments such as the recent importance of dynamic data structures and the (re)introduction of parallel architecture. Comparing with other languages, and only for number crunching, one can see that Fortran90 scores higher on numeric polymorphism, decimal precision selection, real Kind type etc. Only 90 has data parallel capabilities meaningful for numeric computation which are missing from other languages. Also 90's data abstraction is not as powerful as in C++ but it avoids the complexities of object-oriented programming. Click here for More information on FORTRAN and Programming of Click here to download CMPE 106 FORTRAN Lecture notes.
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This site was last updated 03/06/04
Eastern Mediterranean University
Mechanical Engineering Department
Famagusta / T.R.N.C. MERSIN 10 - Turkey
Tel:+90 392 630 1210 / Fax:+90 392 365 1538
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