Product Description
FORTRAN is the most popular computer language currently in use. As over 90% of students studying computer programming take a course in FORTRAN and annual enrolment is well over 100,000 students, this text will cover an extensive range of computer programming courses. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

While dated, it is still an excellent demonstration of beginning programming
This is another one of the books that will always hold a special place in my heart. When I made the decision to go to college, I did not have a great deal of money available. Therefore, I decided to take as many College Level Examination Program (CLEP) tests as possible. One of the exams that was available was programming with FORTRAN. Therefore, to prepare for the exam, I purchased this book and systematically worked through most of the example problems. After I did that, I took the exam and passed it with points to spare.
While I agree that the book is now dated, as the changes in programming fundamentals has long ago left this version of FORTRAN by, it is still an excellent demonstration of the fundamentals of programming. The thought processes that go into programming, the syntax of a language and some of the basic problems that can be used in beginning programming classes are all presented in a clear and understandable manner.

Great from a historical perspective
This book (written when my dad was still in school) provides such information as how to write programs on punch cards, and format the output onto a line printer.This is the FORTRAN that many mathematicians, scientists, and engineers got their start on.While the book, and the version of FORTRAN presented, is clearly dated, it is filled with interesting and practical problems.If you are interested in learning FORTRAN as it is used today, this may not be the best, but from a historical perspective... in a word punchcards.

Just Another Programming Language Of Interest.
Was a good book to start the learning of FORTRAN ... way back in the late '70s. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

DP
Programin ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

If you need to work with FORTRAN...
My boss'll probably laugh till he falls over if he ever reads this review. He's an atmospheric physicist (translation: "a meteorologist who doesn't want to be in the same category as the empty suits on the evening news,") who programmed a lot in FORTRAN before he changed over to management. He likes to goad C programmers showing signs of prima-donnaism by saying he could write XYZ in FORTRAN, no matter what XYZ happens to be.

What earthly use is FORTRAN these days, you may ask (apart from any unlucky soul who has to maintain some hunk of ancient code), and thus, what use is this book? Well, that depends.

In the last numerical analysis class I took, I opted to do the programming assignments in FORTRAN, after one or two aggravating forays at writing them in C with a limited amount of time. Translating the algorithms into FORTRAN required a lot less work (duh, you say; the language exists for FORmula TRANslation). Still, with a time limit for homework assignments, it can be useful.

(In real life, a mathematician attached to a project I'm familiar with designs algorithms, but he's not a programmer, so his assistant has to implement them. Well, the mathematician actually writes them in FORTRAN, and the assistant gets to translate them into C...)

This particular book is, of course, somewhat elderly, as the title will tell you, but that can actually be in your favour. It's *extremely* easy to follow, and quite short, so it's easy to find what you need. And no matter how old, unmaintained, and just plain obsolete the FORTRAN compiler you're dealing with happens to be, this book will support you in writing code that can work with it.

Even though I don't work with FORTRAN these days, I keep it as a reference just in case, because it's worth its weight in platinum if you need to write something in the language. ... Read more