Editing Fortran (section)

{{Short description|General-purpose programming language}}
{{Use American English|date=April 2023}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=April 2023}}
{{Infobox programming language
| logo = 
| logo size = 
| logo caption = 
| paradigm = [[Multi-paradigm programming language|Multi-paradigm]]: [[Structured programming|structured]], [[Imperative programming|imperative]] ([[Procedural programming|procedural]], [[Object-oriented programming|object-oriented]]), [[Generic programming|generic]], [[Array programming|array]]
| year = {{Start date and age|1957}}
| designer = [[John Backus]]
| developer = [[John Backus]] and [[IBM]]
| latest release version = Fortran 2023 (ISO/IEC 1539:2023)
| latest release date = {{Start date and age|2023|11|17}}
| typing = [[Strong and weak typing|strong]], [[Type system|static]], [[Manifest typing|manifest]]
| implementations = [[Absoft Fortran Compilers|Absoft]], [[Cray]], [[GNU Fortran|GFortran]], [[G95]], [[IBM]] XL Fortran, [[Intel Fortran Compiler|Intel]], [[Hitachi]], Lahey/Fujitsu, [[Numerical Algorithms Group]], [[Watcom C compiler|Open Watcom]], [[PathScale]], [[PGI compiler|PGI]], [[Silverfrost FTN95|Silverfrost]], [[Oracle Solaris Studio]], [[OpenVMS|VAX/DEC/VSI]], others
| dialects = 
| influenced_by = [[Speedcoding]]
| influenced = [[ALGOL 58]], [[BASIC]], [[C (programming language)|C]], [[Chapel (programming language)|Chapel]],<ref name="chplspec">{{cite web|title=Chapel spec (Acknowledgements)|url=http://chapel.cray.com/spec/spec-0.98.pdf |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160205114946/http://chapel.cray.com/spec/spec-0.98.pdf |archive-date=February 5, 2016 |url-status=live|date=October 1, 2015|access-date=January 14, 2016|publisher=Cray Inc}}</ref> [[CMS-2]], [[Dartmouth Oversimplified Programming Experiment|DOPE]], [[Fortress (programming language)|Fortress]], [[MATLAB]], [[PL/I]], [[PACT I]], [[MUMPS]], [[IDL (programming language)|IDL]], [[Ratfor]], [[SAKO (programming language)|SAKO]]<ref>Report of a Visit to Discuss Common Programming Languages in Czechoslowakia and Poland, 1963, John A. Gosden (Editor), Roger E. Gay, John L. Jones, Jack N. Merner, Christopher J. Shaw</ref>
| operating_system = 
| license = 
| file_ext = {{code|.f90}}, {{code|.f}}, {{code|.for}}
| website = 
}}

'''Fortran''' ({{IPAc-en|ˈ|f|ɔr|t|r|æ|n}}; formerly '''FORTRAN''') is a [[third-generation programming language|third-generation]], [[compiled language|compiled]], [[imperative programming|imperative]] [[programming language]] that is especially suited to [[numerical analysis|numeric computation]] and [[computational science|scientific computing]].

Fortran was originally developed by [[IBM]] with a reference manual being released in 1956;<ref name="Where">{{cite web |url= http://www.softwarepreservation.org/projects/FORTRAN/paper/p25-backus.pdf |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070726192224/http://www.softwarepreservation.org/projects/FORTRAN/paper/p25-backus.pdf |archive-date=July 26, 2007 |url-status=live |author=John Backus |title=The history of FORTRAN I, II and III |publisher= Softwarepreservation.org |access-date=November 19, 2014}}</ref> however, the first compilers only began to produce accurate code two years later.<ref name="cpl_3rd-pg_16_quote">{{cite book
  | last = Wilson
  | first = Leslie B.
  | title = Comparative Programming Languages, Third Edition
  | publisher = Addison-Wesley
  | year = 2001
  | page = 16
  | quote = The manual for Fortran I was released in 1956, but it was 1958 before successful compilers were running programs correctly.
  | isbn = 0-201-71012-9
}}</ref> Fortran [[computer program]]s have been written to support scientific and engineering applications, such as [[numerical weather prediction]], [[finite element method|finite element analysis]], [[computational fluid dynamics]], [[Plasma (physics)|plasma physics]], [[geophysics]], [[computational physics]], [[crystallography]] and [[computational chemistry]]. It is a popular language for [[high-performance computing]]<ref name="hpc">{{cite journal |url=https://queue.acm.org/detail.cfm?id=1820518 |first=Eugene |last=Loh |title=The Ideal HPC Programming Language |journal=ACM Queue |date=2010-06-18 |volume=8 |issue=6|pages=30–38 |doi=10.1145/1810226.1820518 }}</ref> and is used for programs that benchmark and rank the world's [[TOP500|fastest supercomputers]].<ref>{{cite web|title = HPL – <!--ndash ok here as substitute for hyphen?--> A Portable Implementation of the High-Performance Linpack Benchmark for Distributed-Memory Computers | access-date = February 21, 2015 | url = http://www.netlib.org/benchmark/hpl}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|title = Q13. What are the benchmarks? | work = Overview – CPU 2017 | publisher = [[SPEC]] | access-date = November 13, 2019 | url = http://www.spec.org/cpu2017/Docs/overview.html#benchmarks}}</ref>

[[File:IBM Blue Gene P supercomputer.jpg|thumb|The [[IBM Blue Gene|IBM Blue Gene/P]] supercomputer installation in 2007 at the Argonne Leadership Computing Facility located in the [[Argonne National Laboratory]], in [[Lemont, Illinois|Lemont]], [[Illinois]], [[United States|US]]]]

Fortran has evolved through numerous versions and dialects. In 1966, the [[American National Standards Institute]] (ANSI) developed a standard for Fortran to limit proliferation of compilers using slightly different syntax.<ref name="cpl_3rd-pg_18_quoted">{{cite book
  | last = Wilson
  | first = Leslie B.
  | title = Comparative Programming Languages, Third Edition
  | publisher = Addison-Wesley
  | year = 2001
  | page = 18
  | quote = Another problem was that there was no standard for Fortran and so slightly different versions ... would likely fail when used with a different compiler.
  | isbn = 0-201-71012-9
}}</ref> Successive versions have added support for a character data type (Fortran 77), [[structured programming]], [[array programming]], [[modular programming]], [[generic programming]] (Fortran 90), [[High Performance Fortran|parallel computing]] ([[Fortran 95 language features|Fortran 95]]), [[object-oriented programming]] (Fortran 2003), and [[concurrent programming]] (Fortran 2008).

[[File:Algol&Fortran Family By Skippppp.svg|thumb|upright=1.2|FORTRAN and COBOL genealogy tree]]

Since April 2024, Fortran has ranked among the top ten languages in the [[TIOBE index]], a measure of the popularity of programming languages.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.tiobe.com/tiobe-index/|title=TIOBE Index|author=TIOBE Software BV|date=May 2024|website=TIOBE.com|publisher=[[TIOBE index|TIOBE]]|access-date=May 6, 2024}}</ref>