So i have a memory of seeing Fortran-11 docs. It was the Fortran66 version with overlay support. But I mostly remember that being Fortran IV.
On Mon, Oct 13, 2025, 3:17 PM Jim Davis via cctalk <[email protected]> wrote: > We switched from IBM 1130 FORTRAN to WATFOR in 1975 at Portland State. > Since we had the source, we added some extensions. > Good times, Jim Davis. > > On Sun, Oct 12, 2025 at 12:52 PM Fred Cisin via cctalk < > [email protected]> wrote: > > > On Fri, 10 Oct 2025, Christopher Zach via cctalk wrote: > > > * Fortran 11 reference manual (unsure of title) > > > > > > "Fortran 11" could be "G-Fortran 11" > > (G: GNU ("GNU is Not Unix")) > > > > But, If that is Roman numeral 2, then it is "FORTRAN" 2/II (1958 - 1961?) > > > > FORTRAN was annnounced in 1954, and was primarily the work of John > Backus. > > First FORTRAN compiler seems to have been 1957. > > Name is short for "FORmula TRANslation". > > Name is All CAPS. > > (IBM computers of the time, and punch cards, did not have lower case) > > Alrhough later, sometimes, the "ORTRAN" part is typeset in small CAPS > > (capital/upper-case characters in lower-case size) > > FORTRAN 77 was the last version where the official character set was all > > CAPS. > > > > In 1990? the standards committee started using "Fortran", instead of > > "FORTRAN", for their newer versions. Many, even such as Wikipedia, try > to > > RETROACTIVELY apply that name change to earlier material; I consider that > > extremely inappropriate. > > > > > > Or I might possibly have missed out on a revised standard in 2011, which > > would, indeed, be "Fortran 11" (two digit year, for early start creating > > Y3K?) > > > > > > There were other variants both of language and name, > > such as "PDQ FORTRAN" > > ("Pretty Damn Quick FORTRAN"), a variant of FORTRAN II > > (I used it on 1620 1967-1969 at Merritt College) > > (NOT to be confused with "PDQ" (Program for Diffusion and Quasi-static > > calculations) (a computational tool written in FORTRAN, for solving > > neutron diffusion equations in nuclear physics.)) > > > > "WATFOR", later "WATF-IV" (WATerloo FORTRAN IV" (NOT "FIVE")), FORTRAN > > variant, with fascinating extensions, from WATerloo University. > > (I used it a bit on 360, around 1970, at George Washington University) > > > > > > I first started learning FORTRAN on May 25, 1964, following my father's > > experience with inexcusably BUGGY programs written by IBM for the CBS > > "National Drivers Test". (He had to frantically manually fix serious > > errors in their results, for Walter Cronkite on live TV) The whole > family > > started studying, using the books by McCracken and Decima Anderson. > > More Trivia: a colleague, who needed to learn Spanish, tried to do so by > > getting a copy of McCracken in Spanish. > > > > -- > > Grumpy Ol' Fred [email protected] > > >
