Editing Ratfor (section)

== Ratfiv ==
'''Ratfiv''' is an enhanced version of the [[Ratfor programming language]], a [[preprocessor]] for [[Fortran]] designed to give it [[C (programming language)|C]]-like capabilities. Fortran was widely used for scientific programming but had very basic [[Control flow|control-flow]] primitives ("do" and "[[goto]]") and no "[[Macro (computer science)|macro]]" facility which limited its expressiveness.

The name of the language is a pun (''Ratfor'' (RATional FORtran) -> "Rat Four" -> "Rat Five" -> ''RatFiv'').

Ratfiv was developed by Bill Wood at the [[Fox Chase Cancer Center|Institute for Cancer Research]], [[Philadelphia]], PA in the early 1980s and released on several [[DECUS]] (Digital Equipment Users Group) SIG (Special Interest Group) tapes.  It is based on the original Ratfor by [[Brian Kernighan|B. Kernighan]] and [[P. J. Plauger]], with rewrites and enhancements by David Hanson and friends (U. of Arizona), Joe Sventek and Debbie Scherrer ([[Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory]]).

Ratfiv V2.1 was distributed on the DECUS RSX82a SIG tape.<ref>[http://www.ibiblio.org/pub/academic/computer-science/history/pdp-11/rsx/decus/rsx82a/330015/ Ratfiv V2.1 archive]</ref>