Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!image.soe.clarkson.edu!taylor
From: taylor@sun.soe.clarkson.edu (Ross Taylor)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.fortran
Subject: Re: Dates for the different versions of FORTRAN?
Message-ID: <1990Aug15.141651.19867@sun.soe.clarkson.edu>
Date: 15 Aug 90 14:16:51 GMT
References: <3093.26c6b1cd@cc.curtin.edu.au> <9008151155.AA11309@thep.lu.se>
Reply-To: taylor@sun.soe.clarkson.edu (Ross Taylor)
Organization: Clarkson University, Potsdam, NY
Lines: 37

There has been quite a bit of discussion on the net regarding the
history of FORTRAN.  I recently acquired several volumes in the
Time-Life series "Understanding Computers".  The volume "Computer
Languages" discusses the history of most of the widely used languages
and the following comments are based on material in that book.  I think
that this particular book may be a useful source of historical and
anecdotal material for the individual that posted the original request
for information (sorry, I don't have that message any more).

FORTRAN was developed by an IBM team led by John Backus.  It appears
that developing the compiler took much more time then was ever
anticipated and was six months to completion for two years.  Backus
regards the major contribuiton of FORTRAN as the organization of loops.
The first release of FORTRAN was in April 1957 and the book refers to
the attempts (succesful) by Herb Bright at the Westinghouse-Bettis
Atomic Power Lab to run the compiler blind (it was recieved with no
instructions).  It is not clear if they were the very first outside IBM
to use the new compiler but they were one of the first.

FORTRAN II followed only about a year after the original release.  This
version allowed for, among other things, links to assembly language.
FORTRAN III was written in 1958 and FORTRAN IV was announced in 1962.

I hope the above information is useful.  For further information the
Time Life book cited above has an extensive bibliography that cites many
book and journal articles that would be interesting reading.  The
journal "Annals of the history of computing" is cited frequently and the
following issues may be particularly interesting: October 1982 and July
1979.  The latter includes an article by Backus "The History of FORTRAN
I, II and III".  I have not read any of these articles; our library does
not subscribe to this journal.

Ross Taylor
Department of Chemical Engineering
Clarkson University, Potsdam, NY 13699
email: taylor@sun.soe.clarkson.edu (internet)