CHAPTER 2 - Programming in Fortran

Abstract

This chapter explains programming in Fortran. The programs written in detail in Fortran in this text were all run on a minicomputer and were necessarily of limited size. In operating the machine, the program tape or card deck is first fed into the computer, and under the influence of the control unit, the information on this tape is suitably stored. Thereafter, the data tape or card deck is fed in, and the numerical values of the parameters are stored in the locations preselected by the instructions of the program. For the computer to carry out this series of operations, they must be incorporated as a series of instructions in the computer program. The instructions have to be in a form that the computer circuits may readily follow; this is known as basic machine code and is in binary form. Unfortunately, such a code besides requiring a knowledge of the logic of the computer circuits is also extremely lengthy and tedious to formulate. A program written in Fortran consists of a series of relatively simple algebraic statements or instructions called the source program. This is then translated by the compiler into the basic machine code instructions and is then referred to as the object program.