LYCOS RETRIEVER 
Fortran: Features
built 656 days ago
Fortran is the language of choice for scientists and engineers. In addition to its common use as a powerful language for scientific and medical research, it lends itself well to industrial applications in fields such as aeronautics, aerospace, and the military. Fortran's rich set of mathematical computation features, array manipulation, and optimizable constructs help you quickly create complex yet efficient modelling algorithms.
Source:
IBM personnel worked in two directions: one to deriving Fortran II, with its ability to call previously compiled subroutines, the other to Xtran in order to generalize the structure and remove restrictions. This and other work led to Algol 58 and Algol 60. Algol X will probably metamorphose into Algol 68 in the early part of that year, and Algol Y stands in the wings. Meanwhile Fortran II turned into Fortran IV in 1962, with some regularizing of features and additions, such as Boolean arithmetic.
Source:
Even in the early days, people recognized that Fortran could not grow and grow forever as it responded to new architectures and software. As a beginning step toward the deletion of obsolete features, one feature of FORTRAN 66 was removed in Fortran 77. That was "Hollerith," which was removed on the assumption that character data type would take its place.
Source:
MORE ABOUT
Features