What is the full form of FORTRAN?

The full form of FORTRAN is the FORmula TRANslation. FORTRAN, created by John Backus in 1957, is the very first high-level programming language. It was fundamentally designed to write high-performance computing programming and is suited explicitly to computational computing & scientific applications requiring detailed math calculations in numerical computing. Translating math equations into code was the primary motive behind the architecture.

A brief history of FORTRAN

• Programmers used the machine or assembly code before the FORTRAN invention to create an extremely complex and time-consuming program.
• It led to the creation of FORTRAN, which was easy to learn, independent of the computer, easy for mathematical formulas, and ideal for all kinds of apps.
• Since it was so more comfortable to test, developers could write the programs in FORTRAN 500 percent quicker than the prior incarnations.
• The most famous versions of FORTRAN are FORTRAN IV & FORTRAN 77.
• In 1966, FORTRAN IV had become a USASI standard and ANSI accepted FORTRAN 77 in 1978.
• A new ISO & ANSI standard was created for FORTRAN, labelled FORTRAN 90, in the early 1990s.

Characteristics of the FORTRAN

• The following are some of the main characteristics of this language:
• Easy to learn and comprehend.
• You can transport a program from one computer to a different machine.
• It provides various natural forms for complex mathematical functions to be expressed.
• In contrast to assembly or machine code, just about a 20 percent reduction in performance.
• It enables programmers to manage storage allocation.
• Compared to assembly or machine language, programmers do not have to layout code in rigidly defined columns.

Use of FORTRAN

1. Easy to answer algebraic questions
2. Scientific computing
3. Numeric computing.