The Fortran 2003 Handbook

Abstract

Fortran has been the premier language for scientific computing since its introduction in 1957. Fortran originally was designed to allow programmers to evaluate formu- las—FORmula TRANslation—easily on large computers. Fortran compilers are now available on all sizes of machines, from small desktop computers to huge multi-proces- sors. The Fortran 2003 Handbook is a definitive and comprehensive guide to Fortran 2003. Fortran 2003, the latest standard version of Fortran, has many modern features that will assist the programmer in writing efficient, portable, and maintainable programs that are useful for everything from “hard science” to text processing. The Fortran 2003 Handbook is an informal description of Fortran 2003, developed to provide not only a readable explanation of features, but also some rationale for the in- clusion of features and their use. In addition, “models” give the reader better insight as to why the language is the way it is. Target