TABLE OF CONTENTS

I. GENERAL INTRODUCTION

A. Definition of high-level programming languageB. Basic programming language terminology’sC. Advantages and Disadvantages of high-levelprogrammingII. HISTORY OF FORTRANA. Biography of John BackusB. Origins of FORTRANC. Construction of the compilerD. Rivals and Descendants of FORTRANIII. VERSIONS OF FORTRANA. FORTRAN IIB. FORTRAN IIIC. FORTRAN IVIV. SIGNIFICANT CONTRIBUTIONS TO TECHNOLOGYV. SIGNIFICANT EXTENSIONS OF FORTRANVI. INFLUENCE OF FORTRANVII. FORTRAN’S SUCCESSVIII. CONTINUED EVOLUTION OF FORTRANIX. CONCLUSION

GENERAL INTRODUCTION

Programming languages has developed to be the mostimportant means of communication between the person with aproblem and the digital computer used to solve it. If thecomputer had to be instructed in machine language, it would beunrealistic to find a solution to most problems. This is becausemost machines operate in binary; therefore the only means ofcommunication between the user and the computer itself is theprogramming language.

A. Definition of Programming Language

According to Sammet, author of

Programming Languages:History and

Fundamentals,

“a programming language is a set ofcharacters with rules for combining them. It has the followingcharacteristics; 1) Machine code knowledge is unnecessary, 2)Potential for conversion to other computers, 3) Instructionexplosion, and 4) problem-oriented notation.”

B. Basic Programming Language Terminology’s

1. Source Program: This is the actual program written in ahigher-level language and it is put into the computer mainlyto obtain results.2. Object Program: This program can exist in binary form or in asomewhat complex symbolic assembly language form. It isfrequently used to signify the outcome of translating thesource programming to an assembly level.

3. Compiler: This is a program that interprets a source programwritten in a certain programming language to an object programthat is capable of running on a certain computer. The compilershould be able to perform the following functions: Examinationof the source code, recouping of suitable subroutines from alibrary, allocates storage, and developing of real machinecode.4. Interpreter: This is a program that executes a source program.The result is an actual answer.5. Automatic Coding: This is the process of writing the sourceprogram and translating it to a form that can be run on acomputer.6. Automatic Programming: Automatic coding is a specific subsetof automatic programming. Automatic programming is the processused by a computer to carry out part of the work involved inthe preparation of a program.

C. Advantages and Disadvantages of High-Level ProgrammingLanguage

Advantages

The most important advantage of high-level programming is thatit is easy to learn as compared to machine-oriented language.There are two aspects to this; First, even though theprogramming language can be complicated, its ease of learningcomes about because the notation is fairly related to the