DocumentCode
1441411
Title
The history of Fortran I, II, and III
Author
Backus, John
Author_Institution
91 St. Germain Ave., San Francisco, CA, USA
Volume
20
Issue
4
fYear
1998
Firstpage
68
Lastpage
78
Abstract
The article discusses attitudes about “automatic programming”, the economics of programming, and existing programming systems, all in the early 1950s. It describes the formation of the Fortran group, its knowledge of existing systems, its plans for Fortran, and the development of the language in 1954. It describes the development of the optimizing compiler for Fortran I, of various language manuals, and of Fortran II and III. It concludes with remarks about later developments and the impact of Fortran and its successors on programming today
Keywords
FORTRAN; automatic programming; history; optimising compilers; Fortran I; Fortran II; Fortran III; Fortran group; automatic programming; history; language manuals; optimizing compiler; programming economics; programming systems; Automatic programming; Decision support systems; Environmental economics; History; Optimizing compilers;
fLanguage
English
Journal_Title
Annals of the History of Computing, IEEE
Publisher
ieee
ISSN
1058-6180
Type
jour
DOI
10.1109/85.728232
Filename
728232
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