Early Programming Books

Mon Jun 21 17:15:43 CDT 2021

On 6/21/21 2:47 PM, Fred Cisin via cctalk wrote:
>>> Is Fortran the newer version of FORTRAN ( I II IV )?
> 
> On Mon, 21 Jun 2021, Chuck Guzis via cctalk wrote:
>> My recollection from X3J3 is that "Fortran" was officially endorsed with
>> F90.  F77 still has FORTRAN officially.
> 
> After "FORTRAN 77", but before "Fortran 90", "Fortran 8X"
> (DOD extensions standardized, etc.)

As far as I can recall, Fortran 8x was the draft standard from X3J3.  It
was never, IIRC, formally certified as final. When the successor of F77
was plotted by X3J3, the target was supposed to be F88.  Due to some
epic squabbling in committee and unfavorable reaction to the 8x draft
standard, the eventual finalized version turned out to be F90. (For a
brief time, I served as an alternate to our official member of X3J3).
IBM threw a fit because X3J3 wasn't swallowing IBM's Vectran extensions
wholesale.  DEC had similar gripes (they wanted it to look more like
F77) and both threatened to pull out of X3J3. Jeanne Adams found herself
trying to hold the whole affair together; it was pretty ugly by all reports.

So yes, from the 8x draft, "Fortran" was part of the verbiage.