• The Four Hundred
  • Subscribe
  • Media Kit
  • Contributors
  • About Us
  • Contact
Menu
  • The Four Hundred
  • Subscribe
  • Media Kit
  • Contributors
  • About Us
  • Contact
  • Fortran Creator, John Backus, Dies at 82

    March 26, 2007 Timothy Prickett Morgan

    John Backus, the IBM systems programmer who led the team that created the Fortran programming language back in the 1950s, has died at the age of 82.

    Fortran, which is short for the IBM Mathematical Formula Translating System, was created in 1956 for the IBM 704 computer, the first electronic computer in the world with floating point math capabilities; this machine was launched in 1954 for scientific and technical applications, and Backus’ Fortran proposal was part and parcel of the system, although it follwed it to market several years later.

    Fortran was one of the first high-level programming languages–and arguably one of the most important ones–which used a combination of English and mathematical expressions–in this case, to render mathematical calculations and crunch data through them. According to Backus, Fortran was a product of his own laziness as well as his brilliance–he wanted to make it easier to program complex mathematical concepts because programming was too tedious.

    The original Fortran had an optimizer built into its compiler, which allowed Fortran to be crunched down to more efficient code and therefore not waste precious cycles on expensive computing equipment. This let programmers think at a much higher level than assembly language, and the advance in computer processing power driven by Moore’s Law allowed more and more complex systems to be modeled. Because of the popularity of Fortran on IBM systems, other computer makers had to put their own Fortran compilers into the field, and eventually, with Fortran 66 in 1996, the industry picked a standard for the language. Since that time, the standard has evolved a half dozen times as new programming techniques became available.

    As a result of that evolution, much of the advanced codes that run on supercomputers today–those that model our weather, nuclear explosions, chemical interactions, and air flow over a wing–are still running on Fortran, which is over 50 years old and which has been declared a dead language many times over.

    As much as Sun Microsystems is hoping that its newly open sourced Fortress programming language will replace Fortran for parallel applications, the odds don’t favor it. Fortran has a way of adapting and surviving.



                         Post this story to del.icio.us
                   Post this story to Digg
        Post this story to Slashdot

    Share this:

    • Reddit
    • Facebook
    • LinkedIn
    • Twitter
    • Email

    Tags: Tags: mtfh_rc, Volume 16, Number 12 -- March 26, 2007

    Sponsored by
    Precisely

    Participate in Precisely’s 2021 IBM i Security Survey

    Every year, Precisely asks IT pros responsible for IBM i security about their top challenges, strategies, technologies and best practices. These annual survey results provide a revealing look at the current state of IBM i security through the eyes of your peers.

    Click here to contribute your perspectives to this year’s survey.

    Share this:

    • Reddit
    • Facebook
    • LinkedIn
    • Twitter
    • Email

    Rexair Taps Quadrant to Improve Document Processing IBM and 3Com Unveil New Collaboration Solution for System i

    Leave a Reply Cancel reply

TFH Volume: 16 Issue: 12

This Issue Sponsored By

    Table of Contents

    • Black Market for ID Theft Has Strong U.S. Ties, Symantec Finds
    • Software Powerhouses Agree on SOA Standards Bodies
    • IBM to Meet Upset WDSc Shops Half-Way on Features?
    • Magic Software Hires a New Chief Executive
    • Oracle Sues SAP Over ‘Corporate Theft on a Grand Scale’
    • Fortran Creator, John Backus, Dies at 82
    • IDC Chops Server Forecasts Thanks to Virtualization, Multicore Chips
    • IBM to Meet Upset WDSc Shops Half-Way on Features?
    • As I See It: Workplace Heaven
    • Oracle Sues SAP Over ‘Corporate Theft on a Grand Scale’

    Content archive

    • The Four Hundred
    • Four Hundred Stuff
    • Four Hundred Guru

    Recent Posts

    • 2021 Predictions for IBM i, Part 1
    • West Four Stands Out With On Demand Color Label Printing
    • HelpSystems Acquires Data Security, File Transfer Companies
    • Four Hundred Monitor, January 13
    • IBM i PTF Guide, Volume 23, Number 2
    • Seiden Group Unveils A PHP Distro For IBM i
    • Thoroughly Modern: DevOps Refactoring Of RPG Applications with RDi
    • Guru: Fall Brings New RPG Features, Part 2
    • More Vintage Power Systems Feature Withdrawals
    • IBM i PTF Guide, Volume 23, Number 1

    Subscribe

    To get news from IT Jungle sent to your inbox every week, subscribe to our newsletter.

    Pages

    • About Us
    • Contact
    • Contributors
    • Four Hundred Monitor
    • IBM i PTF Guide
    • Media Kit
    • Subscribe

    Search

    Copyright © 2021 IT Jungle

    loading Cancel
    Post was not sent - check your email addresses!
    Email check failed, please try again
    Sorry, your blog cannot share posts by email.