Citation
Hutton, D.M. (1998), "Fortran 95", Kybernetes, Vol. 27 No. 1, pp. 101-102. https://doi.org/10.1108/k.1998.27.1.101.2
Publisher
:Emerald Group Publishing Limited
To many of today’s computer users Fortran is regarded as an old‐fashioned programming language. Many cyberneticians and systemists who were among that “happy breed” of computer pioneers who used it to program any and every problem, still regard it with great affection. While so many new purpose‐oriented languages have appeared and, indeed, disappeared it is still with us and, fortunately, still being updated and improved to keep pace with modern computer systems.
Looking at the proceedings of some of the world’s Fortran Users groups it is fascinating to see the statistics for its continued use. According to the chairman of the British Computer Society’s Specialist Group for Fortran, research estimates that more than 90 per cent of scientific computation uses Fortran and that there are some 370,000 Fortran users worldwide. There is no doubt why this is the case, the language has kept abreast with both the new and projected standards for programming languages and, of course, with technological change.
The author of this book has made a worthwhile contribution to this state of affairs. His earlier book Fortran 90 provided a useful guide to the language and the current changes. This new book builds on it presenting the new features in a readable and comprehensive way.
There is a great investment in Fortran and users need to know the changes that occur to produce its new features and require to keep up with its evolution. Standards and specifications can be consulted but the average user needs a textbook that not only describes the changes, but also provides examples of its use. Exercises and case studies are by far the best way of learning both semantics and syntax of any programming language. Fortran still remains an evolving language and its current standard Fortran 95 is the son or daughter of Fortran 90. This book, by Martin Counihan, has consolidated his previous work and included the new features in its body as well as in a detailed appendix. No doubt the coming Fortran 2000 will, in due course, be introduced by the author in much the same way. Such things as new standards for an interface between Fortran and the language C and features for a High Performance Fortran (HPF) for such activities as parallel systems programming will appear in any new sequel. The latter HPF is dealt with in a chapter of this book.
Of the Fortran books that I have reviewed over the past decade I rate this highly because of the clarity of the text and the use of examples and relevant and well chosen exercises. Unfortunately for computer users there is likely to be another book concerned with the language published at any moment, particularly when a language like Fortran continues to evolve. Even so, there is still a great deal of mileage to be had from this contribution to the never ending story, it would seem, of what remains a dominant and still attractive programming language.