Working with
Legacy Fortran
(IV/66 - 95)
Fortran (or FORTRAN) was created in the late 1950's and was the first high level computer language, releasing programmers from reading and writing assembly code for early computers. Although there now are dozens of new languages (perhaps hundreds), Fortran is still relevant, and the latest standard update was released in late 2023, Fortran 2023.
Fortran was utilized by many scientists and engineering in the 1960s through the 1990s; later computer languages such as C, C++, Java, Python, etc. overtook the use of Fortran for many applications. Regardless, Fortran is still in use by many firms and institutions, and continues to grow and evolve.
Even in the 21st century, people still work with older (legacy) Fortran code, which is typically either Fortran IV/66, 77, 90 and 95. Although the Fortran standards of the last 20+ years (2003, 2008, 2015 and 2023) are backwardly compatible, it can be desirable to update/refactor older code to take advantage of the new Fortran standards. Unfortunately, the older the original code, the more it diverges from current syntax and formatting.
Work is currently underway to develop a Windows based program that will allow the user to analyze and upgrade legacy Fortran code. We will try to post updates here as work progresses.
Fortran Mechanic
Legacy Fortran PDF Repository
Below is a link to a free online repository of PDFs that have been found on the internet, free for your review and download regarding legacy (and new) Fortran: