Bücher von Wilhelm Gehrke

PREFACE The FORTRAN programming language was designed in the 1950s and standardized in 1966. That version of the language was later called FORTRAN 66. FORTRAN 66 quickly developed into the most important programming language for the development of engineering and scientific applications. In 1978, the language was redesigned and standardized again and called FORTRAN 77. However, this FORTRAN version was not yet a modern language as far as software engineering and programming methodology were concerned. In 1991, a new version of the language was standardized. Its name is Fortran 90. This version is a powerful tool, in fact it is closer to the state of the art of high level problem oriented programming languages than other famous languages that are used for the same area of application. The next revision of the language is planned for 1995; it will be a minor revision of Fortran 90. The next major language revision is planned for the year 2000. This "e;Fortran90 Language Guide"e; is a comprehensible description of the com- plete Fortran 90 programming language as it is defined in the standard docu- ment [1]. It is already in accordance with the two corrigenda [2] [3] of the standard document. The standard document is a reference book for compiler writers and those experts who already know all about Fortran 90, but it is use- less for beginners and rather impractical even for experienced programmers.

Fortran is one of the most widely used programming languages in science and engineering. Fortran 90 replaced the outmoded FORTRAN 77 in 1991 and this recent version of the International Standard enhances this version. It also includes several new features to ensure that Fortran continues to be aligned with High Performance Fortran (HPF) for parallel computer architectures. Fortran 95 Language Guide will serve as a language reference manual for programmers, provide teaching material for introductory courses in Fortran programming, and give help to experienced Fortran programmers migrating to the new standard. Gehrke has provided a comprehensive and easy-to-understand description of the Fortran 95 programming language as defined by the ISO, which will be welcomed by both practitioners and students alike.

Fortran is currently the world's most powerful numeric language and F is a subset of this. F is a programming language which is nearly as powerful as its parent language, containing the modern language features of Fortran, yet smaller and easier to use, debug and teach than Fortran.