What is Fortran?

Fortran (short for “Formula Translation”) is one of the oldest high-level programming languages, created in the 1950s to help scientists and engineers write calculations on computers. It lets you tell a computer how to solve math problems, especially those involving lots of numbers and equations.

Let's break it down

  • Formula Translation: The name tells you the purpose - turning mathematical formulas into computer code.
  • High-level language: You write instructions in a form that’s easier for humans to read than machine code.
  • 1950s: It’s been around for over 70 years, making it a “grandparent” of modern programming languages.
  • Scientists and engineers: The people who need to run big calculations, like physics simulations or weather forecasts.
  • Tell a computer how to solve math problems: You write steps (code) that the computer follows to get results.

Why does it matter?

Even though it’s old, Fortran is still extremely fast at crunching numbers, so many critical scientific and engineering projects rely on it. Knowing about Fortran helps you understand the roots of modern computing and why some legacy codebases are still in use today.

Where is it used?

  • Climate and weather modeling - national meteorological agencies run massive simulations written in Fortran.
  • Aerospace engineering - NASA and aircraft designers use Fortran for fluid dynamics and structural analysis.
  • Nuclear physics - reactors and particle-accelerator simulations are often built with Fortran code.
  • High-performance computing (HPC) research - supercomputers run Fortran programs for chemistry, materials science, and more.

Good things about it

  • Exceptional performance for numerical and array operations.
  • Mature, battle-tested libraries for scientific computing (e.g., LAPACK, BLAS).
  • Strong support for parallel processing on supercomputers.
  • Stable language standards that change slowly, ensuring long-term code reliability.
  • Simple syntax for mathematical expressions, making it easy for scientists to read.

Not-so-good things

  • Limited modern features (e.g., object-orientation, functional programming) compared to newer languages.
  • Smaller community and fewer learning resources for beginners today.
  • Verbose code for tasks unrelated to heavy math, making general-purpose programming cumbersome.
  • Compatibility issues can arise when mixing Fortran with newer languages or tools.