Why Fortran?

Philosophy course final exam (only 1 question- Why?)

• It is the world's most widely used scientific programming language.
• It is particularly well suited to solving numerical problems and with Fortran 90 now has many of the good features of other languages.
• There is an enormous base of well proven Fortran code.
• It is available on nearly all platforms (uniquely on some).
• It is easy to learn! It was my first language also! (with PUNCHED CARDS!!)

Why not C? C++? Pascal? PL1? Java? Lisp? Scheme?

Fortan is dead! Long live Fortran!

Detailed study of Fortran from next week.