Thread by @PulpLibrarian

Is there a future in old tech? Of course there is - especially when it's still powering some of our most amazing inventions! That's why you should ALWAYS keep all that old computer stuff you learnt in college.

Speaking of which... how's your FORTRAN?

FORTRAN (in shouty caps) was released in 1957 as the world's first high-level programming language. It’s probably the longest lasting, with Fortran 2018 (no shouty caps) being its latest release. And it all started with a simple question: how do you simplify programming?

Programming early computers meant entering sequences of numerical codes, each representing a basic operation. It was time-consuming, prone to error and hard to spot mistakes. The codes needed also varied between computers.

Basically it was a slog...

So in 1953 IBM programmer John Backus suggested to his boss they create a programming language that could express calculations as a kind of mathematical notation, which a translation program would then convert into the necessary numerical codes. He was told to go do it.

Backus put together a team to work on the idea and in 1957 they released the IBM Mathematical Formula Translating System - FORTRAN. Using futuristic ‘commands’ such as IF, GO TO and READ TAPE they hoped their new language would make programming easier to understand.

But what really made FORTRAN take off was the ‘translator’; an optimising compiler that turned FORTRAN into code that was just as good as the laborious hand-written version. And with computer memory still measured in bits, code efficiency was at a premium.

Put simply a few lines of FORTRAN could produce the same effect as a hundred lines of machine code, usually at the same efficiency. It also meant engineers and scientists could get to grips more easily with programming, as FORTRAN made logical sense to read.

FORTRAN (along with LISP) supported the mighty IBM 704, the first commercial computer with floating-point arithmetic. It was the go-to system for complex mathematics, making punch cards, vacuum tubes and FORTRAN the cutting edge of 1950s technology.

By 1958 FORTRAN II had been released and other computer manufacturers were offering FORTRAN compatibility. It was the start of the separation of software from hardware, as programming became a platform-independent skill. But the big leap took place eight years later...

FORTRAN 66 - sometimes called FORTRAN IV - was the first programming language created to an agreed shared industry standard. Any 66 program could work on any computer provided it had a standard 66 compiler.

However #tech wasn’t standing still to congratulate it.

C, Pascal, Cobol and other programming languages were able to do things that FORTRAN 66 couldn’t, and as manufacturers began adding customisation to 66 it wasn’t long before the ANSI FORTRAN standards committee had to produce a new standardised version.

FORTRAN 77 still makes some people all misty-eyed about their university days, whilst others want to heave into a bucket just thinking about it. Yes it’s great for high-end mathematics and NASA-type projects, but trying to get it to display information? It’s an acquired taste.

And by the time Fortran 90 came along (with its friendly lower-case letters) C++ was already eating its lunch, much like Python is now trying to do to everything else.

But there are still some very good reasons to brush up your original shouty FORTRAN skills from yesteryear…

First, it’s still King of the calculations: physicists and engineers are still FORTRAN friendly due to its speed at complex calculation, and with so much legacy code in existence it makes sense not to junk it and start again.

Secondly there’s lots of cool stuff still around that needs FORTRAN. The Galileo probe that studied Jupiter and its satellites in 1995 provided lots of valuable data that needs VAX-FORTRAN to process it. NASA still needs FORTRAN expertise for its older systems.

But mainly if aliens discover our Voyager probes in the far future they'll ignore the messages it carries from Jimmy Carter and The Pope, and look instead at its software. When they do make contact, they’ll be expecting us all to speak FORTRAN. You have been warned!

END PROGRAM