Modern Fortran Explained

Fortran marches on, remaining one of the principal programming languages used in high-performance scientific, numerical, and engineering computing. A series of significant revisions to the standard versions of the language have progressively enhanced its capabilities, and the latest standard – Fortran 2018 – includes many additions and improvements.

This edition of Modern Fortran Explained expands on the last. Given the release of updated versions of Fortran compilers, the separate descriptions of Fortran 2003 and Fortran 2008 have been incorporated into the main text, which thereby becomes a unified description of the full Fortran 2008 version of the language. This clearer standard has allowed many deficiencies and irregularities in the earlier language versions to be resolved.

Four new chapters describe the additional features of Fortran 2018, with its enhancements to coarrays for parallel programming, interoperability with C, IEEE arithmetic, and various other improvements.

Written by leading experts in the field, two of whom have actively contributed to Fortran 2018, this is a complete and authoritative description of Fortran in its latest form. It is intended for new and existing users of the language, and for all those involved in scientific and numerical computing. It is suitable as a textbook for teaching and, with its index, as a handy reference for practitioners.

Review

“An excellent, authoritative and complete reference book on the modern Fortran language, where all its possibilities are collected and any detail of the language can be clearly consulted.” — European Mathematical Society

“Well organized and equipped with good examples, the text can be used as both a tutorial and a reference. It describes each of the language elements and explains where FORTRAN 2018 differs from its predecessors. A thorough index is provided; all illustrations are clear and concise. The language used in descriptions and explanations throughout the book is clear and easy to follow. This book is an excellent resource for all practitioners.” — F. H. Wild III, University of Rhode Island, CHOICE Connect

About the Author

Michael Metcalf, Formerly of CERN, Geneva, Switzerland, John Reid, Numerical Analyst, JKR Associates, Oxfordshire, Malcolm Cohen, Principal technical consultant, The Numerical Algorithms Group Ltd, Oxford, U.K.

Michael Metcalf worked for many years at CERN. He is the author or co-author of a range of publications, including forerunners to the present volume, as well as Effective FORTRAN 77 (OUP NY, 1985) and a number of contributions to technical encyclopaedias

John Reid is well-known as a numerical analyst and is a co-author of Direct Methods for Sparse Matrices (OUP, 2017). He is the Convenor of the ISO Fortran Committee and has played a leading role in the development of many of the features of modern Fortran, especially of coarrays.

Malcolm Cohen is a mathematician and the leading compiler writer at NAG. He has participated actively in the development of the Fortran standards, being a major designer of the objected-oriented features. He is the Editor of the Fortran 2008 standard.