What is FORTRAN?

FORTRAN is a portmanteau that was originally derived from the IBM Mathematical Formula Translating System. Fortran is primarily used in the scientific and engineering communities, who rely on this ancient high-level programming language to perform some of the most meticulous supercomputing tasks such as computational fluid dynamics, computational chemistry, quantum chromodynamics, solar system dynamic simulations, simulations of automobile crash dynamics, weather and climate modeling.

Fortran (keep in mind it was developed on one of the earliest computers) is even still used today to gauge the performance of new computer processors. FORTRAN (Fortran) has seen many versions, included within those came a name change (FORTRAN became Fortran with the 90 edition of the programming language.) that is still widely disputed today. Sometime during the fourth quarter of 1953, John W. Backus (who can be considered the father of modern formal syntax) led a team of fellow computer scientists in the development of The IBM Mathematical Formula Translating System.

In April 1957, they delivered the first FORTRAN compiler. Other versions that were developed on the way to the current version of the Fortran programming language (Fortran 2003) are: FORTRAN II, FORTRAN III, FORTRAN IV, FORTRAN 66, FORTRAN 77, Fortran 90, and Fortran 95. Currently, efforts are underway to develop a new revision of Fortran, pre-maturely dubbed Fortran 2008. It is intended to be a small change, with minor clarifications and corrections to Fortran 2003, on top of the addition of several select functions.

Fortran has a legacy that has spanned over a half of a century, with many child programming languages, and evolved versions of itself, it is still behind a large portion of today's computed tasks, and involved somehow in your daily computer use.