# Anecdotal Fortran... :-) **URL:** \ **Category:** Uncategorized\ **Created:** [February 11, 2021, 5:58pm UTC](https://fortran-lang.discourse.group/t/anecdotal-fortran/704 "2021-02-11T17:58:03Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 23
**Author:** ![vmagnin](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/free1/user_avatar/fortran-lang.discourse.group/vmagnin/32/28_2.png) [@vmagnin](https://fortran-lang.discourse.group/u/vmagnin)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2025, 8:58pm UTC](https://fortran-lang.discourse.group/t/anecdotal-fortran/704/457 "2025-06-12T20:58:41Z")
I have just discovered the new French FORTRAN thematic network: [https://www.fortran.cnrs.fr/](https://www.fortran.cnrs.fr/) But it means **FORêts en TRANsformation** = TRANsforming FORests (due to anthropic pressure) in English 😁. I guess some people there are working on models… ---
**Author:** ![rwmsu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/48db29/32.png) [@rwmsu](https://fortran-lang.discourse.group/u/rwmsu)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2025, 9:03pm UTC](https://fortran-lang.discourse.group/t/anecdotal-fortran/704/458 "2025-06-12T21:03:08Z")
So I guess its true that some folks can’t see the FORTRAN for the trees 😄 ---
**Author:** ![mecej4](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/free1/user_avatar/fortran-lang.discourse.group/mecej4/32/855_2.png) [@mecej4](https://fortran-lang.discourse.group/u/mecej4)\ **Post date:** [June 14, 2025, 2:40pm UTC](https://fortran-lang.discourse.group/t/anecdotal-fortran/704/459 "2025-06-14T14:40:32Z")
> [@vmagnin](#): > > FORêts People thought some years ago they could build fortresses using PL-I,Ada, … but, as with the broken pine trees in the FORêts pictures, those fortresses have collapsed and blown away, but Fortran is still here to stay. ---
**Author:** ![vmagnin](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/free1/user_avatar/fortran-lang.discourse.group/vmagnin/32/28_2.png) [@vmagnin](https://fortran-lang.discourse.group/u/vmagnin)\ **Post date:** [June 14, 2025, 3:28pm UTC](https://fortran-lang.discourse.group/t/anecdotal-fortran/704/460 "2025-06-14T15:28:02Z")
> [@mecej4](#): > > but Fortran > is still here to stay. A oak language! Hum… There was an [Oak (programming language) - Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oak_(programming_language)) which was a part of a _Green_ platform, but: > Oak was renamed _Java_ in 1994 after a [trademark](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trademark) search revealed that _Oak_ was used by [Oak Technology](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oak_Technology).[[2]](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oak_(programming_language)#cite_note-2) [Java 1.0](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Java_version_history#JDK_1.0) was finally shipped in 1996.[[3]](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oak_(programming_language)#cite_note-3) ---
**Author:** ![Beliavsky](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ba8739/32.png) [@Beliavsky](https://fortran-lang.discourse.group/u/Beliavsky)\ **Post date:** [June 14, 2025, 6:49pm UTC](https://fortran-lang.discourse.group/t/anecdotal-fortran/704/461 "2025-06-14T18:49:58Z")
Fortran codes related to forests, from the Earth Science section of my list: [SPARTACUS-Surface - Canopy radiation scheme](https://github.com/ecmwf/spartacus-surface): computes radiative transfer in complex 3D surface canopies, such as forests and cities, by Robin Hogan and VakankGrang. It makes use of the “SPARTACUS” technique, originally developed for clouds. [Biome Ecological strategy simulator (BiomeESS)](https://github.com/wengensheng/BiomeESS): model in which vegetation is represented as plant functional types sampled from high dimensional spaces of combined plant traits that can consistently coexist in plant individuals. Reference: Weng, E., Dybzinski, R., Farrior, C. E., and Pacala, S. W.: “Competition alters predicted forest carbon cycle responses to nitrogen availability and elevated CO2: simulations using an explicitly competitive, game-theoretic vegetation demographic model”, Biogeosciences, 16, 4577–4599, [BG - Competition alters predicted forest carbon cycle responses to nitrogen availability and elevated CO2: simulations using an explicitly competitive, game-theoretic vegetation demographic model](https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-16-4577-2019), 2019. [ForestVegetationSimulator (FVS)](https://github.com/USDAForestService/ForestVegetationSimulator): family of individual-tree, distance-independent, forest growth simulation models, from the [USDA Forest Service](https://www.fs.usda.gov/). It can simulate a wide range of silvicultural treatments for most major forest tree species, forest types, and stand conditions. [Flexible Snow Model (FSM2)](https://github.com/RichardEssery/FSM2): multi-physics energy balance model of snow accumulation and melt, extending the Factorial Snow Model with additional physics, driving and output options. An associated preprint is [A Flexible Snow Model (FSM 2.1.0) including a forest canopy](https://egusphere.copernicus.org/preprints/2024/egusphere-2024-2546/), by Richard Essery et al., _EGUsphere_ (2024). [LPJ-LMfire Dynamic Global Vegetation Model](https://github.com/ARVE-Research/LPJ-LMfire): code associated with paper [Increased fire activity under high atmospheric oxygen concentrations is compatible with the presence of forests](https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-022-35081-z), by Rayanne Vitali et al., _Nature Communications_ (2022). [MANDIFORE\_modeling](https://github.com/MortonArb-ForestEcology/MANDIFORE_modeling): Forestry x climate scenarios for NSF-funded MANDIFORE project, by Christy Rollinson and Lucien Fitzpatrick [Trees](https://github.com/lanl/Trees): pre-processing tool used to virtually build the forest fuel arrays used by [FIRETEC](https://www.frames.gov/catalog/57519) and [QUIC-Fire](https://www.frames.gov/catalog/60612), by Alexander Josephson and joliveto1 [VolumeLibrary](https://github.com/FMSC-Measurements/VolumeLibrary): National Volume Estimator Library ([NVEL](https://www.fs.usda.gov/forestmanagement/products/measurement/volume/nvel/index.php)) is a collection of the standing tree volume estimators used by the U.S. Forest Service ---
**Author:** ![Beliavsky](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ba8739/32.png) [@Beliavsky](https://fortran-lang.discourse.group/u/Beliavsky)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2025, 12:41pm UTC](https://fortran-lang.discourse.group/t/anecdotal-fortran/704/462 "2025-08-21T12:41:48Z")
I enjoyed [Chaos: Making a New Science](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chaos:_Making_a_New_Science) (1987) by James Gleick. Here is an excerpt from pp173-174, about Mitchell Feigenbaum’s discovery of his constant in Los Alamos in 1975. > Feigenbaum had played with numbers all his life. When he was a teen-ager he knew how to calculate logarithms and sines that most people would look up in tables. But he had never learned to use any computer bigger than his hand calculator – and in this he was typical of physicists and mathematicians, who tended to disdain the mechanistic thinking that computer work implied. Now, though, it was time. He asked a colleague to teach him Fortran, and by the end of the day, for a variety of functions, he had calculated his constant to five decimal places, 4.66920. That night he read about double precision in the manual, and the next day he got as far as 4.6692016090 – enough precision to convince Stein. Feigenbaum wasn’t quite sure he had convinced himself, though. He had set out to look for regularity – that was what understanding mathematics meant – but he had also set out knowing that particular kinds of equations, just like particular physical systems, behave in special, characteristic ways. These equations were simple, after all. Feigenbaum understood the quadratic equation, he understood the sine equation – the mathematics was trivial. Yet something in the heart of these very different equations, repeating over and over again, created a single number. He had stumbled upon something: perhaps just a curiousity; perhaps a new law of nature. The FORTRAN Feigenbaum used was a limited language but small enough that he could learn it in a few hours and get results. Gleick’s book discusses many examples of numerical experiments that advanced the science of dynamical systems, such as the [Lorenz system](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lorenz_system). I wonder what books people suggest reading after Gleick’s, especially ones that cover numerical experiments. There is “Nonlinear Dynamics and Chaos” by Strogatz and “Dynamical Systems with Applications Using Python” by Lynch. ---
**Author:** ![vmagnin](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/free1/user_avatar/fortran-lang.discourse.group/vmagnin/32/28_2.png) [@vmagnin](https://fortran-lang.discourse.group/u/vmagnin)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2025, 6:42pm UTC](https://fortran-lang.discourse.group/t/anecdotal-fortran/704/463 "2025-09-25T18:42:18Z")
If you want to dig in the archives of the BYTE magazine, this is an original search interface: > **[Byte - a visual archive](https://byte.tsundoku.io/)** ---
**Author:** ![themos](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/free1/user_avatar/fortran-lang.discourse.group/themos/32/521_2.png) [@themos](https://fortran-lang.discourse.group/u/themos)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2025, 1:41pm UTC](https://fortran-lang.discourse.group/t/anecdotal-fortran/704/464 "2025-09-26T13:41:25Z")
![image](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/free1/uploads/fortran_lang/original/2X/8/845c0781183c41f1461049aaaab7ca6267dadf73.jpeg) First mention of Linux! ---
**Author:** ![vmagnin](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/free1/user_avatar/fortran-lang.discourse.group/vmagnin/32/28_2.png) [@vmagnin](https://fortran-lang.discourse.group/u/vmagnin)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2025, 2:35pm UTC](https://fortran-lang.discourse.group/t/anecdotal-fortran/704/465 "2025-09-26T14:35:59Z")
> [@themos](#): > > First mention of Linux! The date of that _BYTE_ vol. 17 no. 12 is November 1992. ---
**Author:** ![vmagnin](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/free1/user_avatar/fortran-lang.discourse.group/vmagnin/32/28_2.png) [@vmagnin](https://fortran-lang.discourse.group/u/vmagnin)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2025, 2:46pm UTC](https://fortran-lang.discourse.group/t/anecdotal-fortran/704/466 "2025-09-26T14:46:08Z")
Same no., page 299, an article about the young (1989) _BASH, the Bourne-Again shell_. Note that you can move smoothly into that interface using the arrow keys. ---
**Author:** ![fxm](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/free1/user_avatar/fortran-lang.discourse.group/fxm/32/5726_2.png) [@fxm](https://fortran-lang.discourse.group/u/fxm)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2025, 3:11pm UTC](https://fortran-lang.discourse.group/t/anecdotal-fortran/704/467 "2025-09-26T15:11:38Z")
“Linus Torvalds of Finland” sounds like it is missing a prepended “Lord” or some title. 🤣 ---
**Author:** ![vmagnin](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/free1/user_avatar/fortran-lang.discourse.group/vmagnin/32/28_2.png) [@vmagnin](https://fortran-lang.discourse.group/u/vmagnin)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2025, 4:09pm UTC](https://fortran-lang.discourse.group/t/anecdotal-fortran/704/468 "2025-09-26T16:09:53Z")
In England, they have Sir Tim Berners-Lee. Linus has Finnish and American nationalities, but not English. There will be no Sir Torvalds… ---
**Author:** ![Beliavsky](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ba8739/32.png) [@Beliavsky](https://fortran-lang.discourse.group/u/Beliavsky)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2025, 4:16pm UTC](https://fortran-lang.discourse.group/t/anecdotal-fortran/704/469 "2025-09-26T16:16:47Z")
For a history of Fortran compilers on Linux one can look at Jeff Templon’s [page](https://www.nikhef.nl/~templon/fortran.html). ---
**Author:** ![vmagnin](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/free1/user_avatar/fortran-lang.discourse.group/vmagnin/32/28_2.png) [@vmagnin](https://fortran-lang.discourse.group/u/vmagnin)\ **Post date:** [October 4, 2025, 2:25pm UTC](https://fortran-lang.discourse.group/t/anecdotal-fortran/704/470 "2025-10-04T14:25:45Z")
The [RetroMagazine World](https://www.retromagazine.net/category/retromagazine-world/numeri-in-inglese/) is a freely downloadable magazine under license CC BY-NC-SA 4.0. The website is in Italian but the magazine is also available in English. In Issues [23](https://www.retromagazine.net/download/RetroMagazine_23_eng.pdf) & [24](https://www.retromagazine.net/download/RetroMagazine_24_eng.pdf), there are two articles about the _Abacus Fortran-64_ compiler (1988) for the Commodore 64 machine. ---
**Author:** ![khaors](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/free1/user_avatar/fortran-lang.discourse.group/khaors/32/288_2.png) [@khaors](https://fortran-lang.discourse.group/u/khaors)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2025, 6:05pm UTC](https://fortran-lang.discourse.group/t/anecdotal-fortran/704/471 "2025-12-20T18:05:00Z")
A new video about Fortran has just been released [![](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/free1/uploads/fortran_lang/original/2X/d/d42efd9870144ac670b31c2958e8ea45cd816968.jpeg "The Untold Story of FORTRAN") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5yhuyl-O3wE) ---
**Author:** ![Machalot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ebca7d/32.png) [@Machalot](https://fortran-lang.discourse.group/u/Machalot)\ **Post date:** [December 24, 2025, 12:02am UTC](https://fortran-lang.discourse.group/t/anecdotal-fortran/704/472 "2025-12-24T00:02:27Z")
> [@mecej4](#): > > “off-the-shelf solutions like CarSim mixed with custom options written in C, Python, and even Fortran, a programming language that dates back to the 1950s and will surely outlive us all” > And, in this forum we converse in a language (English) that dates back to, at least, 1600 AD,and has outlived the Roman Empire! Since we program in Modern Fortran and communicate in [Modern English](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_English), we should start referring to pre-FORTRAN 77 as Old FORTRAN, to FORTRAN 77 as Middle FORTRAN, and to Fortran 90 as Early Modern Fortran or Shakespeare’s Fortran. ---
**Author:** ![rwmsu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/48db29/32.png) [@rwmsu](https://fortran-lang.discourse.group/u/rwmsu)\ **Post date:** [December 24, 2025, 12:49am UTC](https://fortran-lang.discourse.group/t/anecdotal-fortran/704/473 "2025-12-24T00:49:51Z")
I have been known to refer to pre-Fortran90 as Jurassic Fortran 😀 ---
**Author:** ![vmagnin](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/free1/user_avatar/fortran-lang.discourse.group/vmagnin/32/28_2.png) [@vmagnin](https://fortran-lang.discourse.group/u/vmagnin)\ **Post date:** [December 24, 2025, 9:31am UTC](https://fortran-lang.discourse.group/t/anecdotal-fortran/704/474 "2025-12-24T09:31:50Z")
> [@rwmsu](#): > > pre-Fortran90 as Jurassic Fortran That is why it is UPPERCASE, symbolizing thick strong bones 🦴… ---
**Author:** ![mecej4](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/free1/user_avatar/fortran-lang.discourse.group/mecej4/32/855_2.png) [@mecej4](https://fortran-lang.discourse.group/u/mecej4)\ **Post date:** [December 24, 2025, 2:15pm UTC](https://fortran-lang.discourse.group/t/anecdotal-fortran/704/475 "2025-12-24T14:15:21Z")
Strong bones to fight gravity, which had not yet been discovered since there was no convenient apple tree in the vicinity. ---
**Author:** ![Harper](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/b5ac83/32.png) [@Harper](https://fortran-lang.discourse.group/u/Harper)\ **Post date:** [December 24, 2025, 7:48pm UTC](https://fortran-lang.discourse.group/t/anecdotal-fortran/704/476 "2025-12-24T19:48:20Z")
So f90 = Cretaceous, f95 = Paleocene, f2003 = Eocene, f2008 = Oligiocene, f2018 = Miocene, f2023 = Pliocene, f202Y = Pleistocene, and we still have a while to wait for the Recent version. [Previous page](https://fortran-lang.discourse.group/t/anecdotal-fortran/704.md?page=22) [Next page](https://fortran-lang.discourse.group/t/anecdotal-fortran/704.md?page=24)