In some large systems, Fortran code can be responsible for 80-100% of the computation. It’s also incredibly easy to learn, as you’ll see with this short introduction to Fortran programming.

Fortran is the oldest commercial programming language, designed at IBM in the 1950s. And even though, for years, programmers have been predicting its demise, 64 years later it's still kicking ...

John Backus, whose development of the Fortran programming language in the 1950s changed how people interacted with computers and paved the way for modern software, has died. He was 82.