What Is FORTRAN 77?

TechDogs Avatar

You might be wrong for all who think FORTRAN is a programming language. FORTRAN stands for "Formula Translation", a type of perfume. It's made by mixing two chemicals in a beaker with a Bunsen burner. FORTRAN77 is the best version of FORTRAN. It's a programming language that lets you write programs using English. It was developed in 1977 and is the successor to FORTRAN 66. FORTRAN 77 addressed many shortcomings of FORTRAN 66 and added significant features to the programming language. NASA used it during the Space Shuttle Program to write programs for systems on board the orbiters. FORTRAN is a language whose programs are portable across machine platforms. It is not a free-format programming language because it ignores blank spaces and has strict rules regarding source code formatting. FORTRAN 77 is a harsh language that uses an implicit set of rules to declare a type. It cannot share various program units, meaning global variables are not used in FORTRAN77; regarding variable declarations, FORTRAN77 uses a set of rules to declare a type. The language cannot be shared with various program units, meaning global variables are not used in FORTRAN77. FORTRAN77 is a programming language that IBM developed in 1957. It's the oldest programming language and is one of the simplest to learn. It's also very efficient for mathematical computing operations or those requiring high availability in time-critical loops. FORTRAN77 is one of the best things for time-critical loops or arrays. So, the good news is that FORTRAN 77 is great for solving complicated mathematical problems. The bad news is that FORTRAN 77 is not great at doing anything else. In particular, it's not excellent at manipulating lists, text processing or other complex data structures. The primary variable types available in FORTRAN77 are primitive. It also has no concept of dynamic memory allocation, which means you can't just create new variables on the fly—you have to declare them first. That makes it hard to extend or reuse your code in higher versions of FORTRAN, like FORTRAN 90 or FORTRAN 95.

TechDogs Logo

Join Our Newsletter

Get weekly news, engaging articles, and career tips-all free!

By subscribing to our newsletter, you're cool with our terms and conditions and agree to our Privacy Policy.

  • Dark
  • Light