In the 1950s, programming meant assembly language: writing the processor’s own instructions by hand. Fortran changed that. It proved a compiler could turn human-readable code into machine code efficient enough that even the assembly programmers would accept it.
The idea
Write in a high-level notation close to ordinary mathematics, and let a compiler translate it into efficient machine instructions. The programmer thinks in formulas; the machine still receives optimized code.
The IBM team
Fortran was developed at IBM by a team led by John Backus, and it first appeared in 1957, with the first compiler delivered that April. The goal was a practical alternative to assembly for the numerically intensive work scientists and engineers needed.
Why it mattered
The open question of the day was whether a compiler could generate code good enough to compete with hand-written assembly. Fortran’s compiler did, and that settled the argument: it produced code efficient enough for assembly programmers to accept a high-level replacement. Fortran is the oldest high-level language still in common use, which is a measure of how completely it won.
The lineage
Fortran built on the idea Grace Hopper had championed, that the machine should do the translating. It opened the door to every language that followed, the family traced in the genealogy of languages, beginning with its near contemporary, Lisp.
Related Notes
- Grace Hopper and the Compiler, the idea Fortran proved at scale
- Lisp and Functional Programming, its very different sibling
- Compilation vs Interpretation, the mechanism underneath
- History and Genealogy of Languages, where Fortran sits
- History of Computing, the section index
Sources
- “Fortran,” Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fortran . Supports Fortran’s development at IBM by a team led by John Backus, its first appearance in 1957 with the first compiler delivered in April 1957, and that it produced code efficient enough for assembly programmers to accept a high-level replacement.