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This is considered as the beginning of general-purpose programming. ( Image credits : NASA and MIT_CSAIL )

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[-] misterundercoat@lemmy.world 70 points 1 year ago

But job listing will still be asking for 70 years of FORTRAN experience.

[-] dodslaser@feddit.nu 15 points 1 year ago

Can you really be proficient in a language you didn't invent?

[-] KairuByte@lemmy.dbzer0.com 31 points 1 year ago

Titles like these make me chortle. Over 65 years ago this month means it could be 70, 80, 100 etc.

[-] Droggelbecher@lemmy.world 16 points 1 year ago

The funniest part to me is how 'this month' is absolutely meaningless. It was over 65 years ago last month too, and the month before that

[-] can@sh.itjust.works 5 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Not if it happened in September

A draft specification for The IBM Mathematical Formula Translating System was completed by November 1954. The first manual for FORTRAN appeared in October 1956 with the first FORTRAN compiler delivered in April 1957.

None of those milestones though...

Never mind someone found it: https://www.edn.com/1st-fortran-program-runs-september-20-1954/

[-] Droggelbecher@lemmy.world 2 points 1 year ago

Yes, I saw that elsewhere in the thread before I commented

[-] randomaccount43543@lemmy.world 9 points 1 year ago

Makes it easier to repost!

[-] Zeth0s@lemmy.world 20 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)
[-] lobsticle@lemmy.world 13 points 1 year ago

And the program finally completed today! ๐ŸŽ‰

[-] lhamil64@programming.dev 8 points 1 year ago

Any idea what that first program was?

[-] anton 1 points 1 day ago

Considering fortran was designed for numerical computation, it was probably a east to check mathematical identity like n*(n+1)/2 = 0 + 1 + 2 + ... + n

[-] jballs@sh.itjust.works 18 points 1 year ago

I'm guessing "Hello world" followed shortly by "send nudes".

[-] HamsterRage@lemmy.ca 6 points 1 year ago

FORTRAN IV was the first language I learned to program in. Punch cards!!!

[-] xilliah@beehaw.org 3 points 1 year ago

That must've been a punch of fun

[-] quams69@lemmy.world 4 points 1 year ago

The tile flooring in the image is asbestos, fun fact

[-] SubArcticTundra@lemmy.ml 3 points 1 year ago

And you're saying it Fort_ran_?

[-] rozlav 3 points 1 year ago

Any names of these two people ? I'll try reverse search

[-] thefluffiest@feddit.nl 2 points 1 year ago

That was a mistake even back then

[-] festus@lemmy.ca 8 points 1 year ago

Fortran was actually a pretty solid language, and I actually regularly use programs that still have pieces written in Fortran.

[-] profoundlynerdy@programming.dev 4 points 1 year ago

Out of curiosity, is a FORTRAN compiler at all self-bootsrapping in a manner akin to Forth? That is, you define a few primitives and then define the rest of the language in terms of those primitives?

[-] waspentalive@beehaw.org 3 points 1 year ago

You don't really change the compiler itself. You can build up libraries of your own subroutines and link in the ones you need in any particular program, just like you might in C.

this post was submitted on 25 Sep 2023
412 points (100.0% liked)

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