Allen wrote:
Outside of a high school Fortran class, my first programming experience was for the Datapoint 2200, which used the same instruction set, as the Intel 8008 (the first 8 bit) microprocessor. The 2200 was originally supposed to use the 8008, but it proved to be too slow, so Datapoint built their own CPU board instead.
What is Fortan like? Was it fun too use? I'm no coder at all, but I've forced myself too wrote at least "Hello, World! in C, C++, VB, QBASIC, PERL, And some C scripting language I found online about 2 years ago. I did it not so I could say I did, but so I would at least understand how programming worked.
Fortran was designed as a scientific & engineering language (it's name was derived from FORmula TRANslation), but in general a lot of the concepts you find in other languages are also there. I have never used Fortran, other than in those classes and another course at a local college, so I can't speak from much experience with it. One thing though, is that it was originally used with punch cards, and the resulting characteristics are still evident. There is a *LOT* of science and engineering software available and I've even seen CDs full of stuff from NASA. You can run Fortran on Linux, if you choose. SuSE Pro includes a Fortran compliler.