A Simplified Guide To Fortran Programming

Fortran has been the premier language for scientific computing since its introduction in 1957. Fortran originally was designed to allow programmers to evaluate for- las—FORmula TRANslation—easily on large computers. Fortran compilers are now available on all sizes of machines, from small desktop computers to huge multiproc- sors. The Guide to Fortran 2003 Programming is an informal, tutorial introduction to the most important features of Fortran 2003 (also known as Fortran 03), the latest standard version of Fortran. Fortran has many modern features that will assist the programmer in writing efficient, portable, and maintainable programs that are useful for everything from “hard science” to text processing. Target Audience This book is intended for anyone who wants to learn Fortran 03, including those fam- iar with programming language concepts but unfamiliar with Fortran. Experienced Fortran 95 programmers will be able to use this volume to assimilate quickly those f- tures in Fortran 03 that are not in Fortran 95 (Fortran 03 contains all of the features of Fortran 95). This guide is not a complete reference work for the entire Fortran l- guage; it covers the basic features needed to be a good Fortran programmer and an - troduction to the important new features of Fortran 03. Many older error-prone features have been omitted and some of the more esoteric features that are new to F- tran 03 also are not discussed.

This is for the person who wants to learn what COBOL is, what programming is, and how to use COBOL in typical business data processing applications. Assumes no previous background in programming. Hands-on programming begins in Chapter 1--each chapter is based on one or more example programs applicable to real-life business settings. Treatment is based on the concepts of structured programming--only a few logical control structures are used throughout the book. Emphasizes a clear program style for ease of reading and debugging. All programs have been tested and run, and computer output is displayed in each case.

This textbook provides an accessible introduction to the most important features of Fortran 2008. Features: presents a complete discussion of all the basic features needed to write complete Fortran programs; makes extensive use of examples and case studies to illustrate the practical use of features of Fortran 08, and supplies simple problems for the reader; provides a detailed exploration of control constructs, modules, procedures, arrays, character strings, data structures and derived types, pointer variables, and object-oriented programming; includes coverage of such major new features in Fortran 08 as coarrays, submodules, parameterized derived types, and derived-type input and output; highlights the topic of modules as the framework for organizing data and procedures for a Fortran program; investigates the excellent input/output facilities available in Fortran; contains appendices listing the many intrinsic procedures and providing a brief informal syntax specification for the language.

"This book is written for the person who wishes to gain a rapid grasp of the use of computers and of Fortran in the solution of problems in such fields as science, engineering, statistics, education and business." -- Preface.