# Fortran.com site
**URL:** https://fortran-lang.discourse.group/t/fortran-com-site/637
**Category:** Uncategorized
**Created:** [January 28, 2021, 1:23pm UTC](https://fortran-lang.discourse.group/t/fortran-com-site/637 "2021-01-28T13:23:48Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Beliavsky](https://fortran-lang.discourse.group/u/Beliavsky)
#### Post date: [January 28, 2021, 1:23pm UTC](https://fortran-lang.discourse.group/t/fortran-com-site/637/1 "2021-01-28T13:23:48Z")
The proprietor of the [Fortran.com](http://Fortran.com) web site, [Walt Brainerd](https://stevelionel.com/drfortran/2020/06/13/doctor-fortran-in-farewell-to-walt/), passed away in June 2020, and the site is not maintained. It would be good if a Fortran enthusiast with web programming and e-commerce skills acquired the site and put Fortran information on the site and sold Fortran compilers, tools, and books, creating something like the [Polyhedron](https://polyhedron.com/) site. When I Google “Fortran”, [Fortran.com](http://Fortran.com) is the 3rd hit. A contact email is [here](https://www.fortran.com/contact/). It would be unfortunate if [Fortran.com](http://Fortran.com) were acquired and used for content unrelated to Fortran.
---
### Author:  [@milancurcic](https://fortran-lang.discourse.group/u/milancurcic)
#### Post date: [January 28, 2021, 3:11pm UTC](https://fortran-lang.discourse.group/t/fortran-com-site/637/2 "2021-01-28T15:11:54Z")
Mike Metcalf suggested the same to me at FortranCon in the context of [fortran-lang.org](http://fortran-lang.org).
Why do you think the site is not maintained? I’ve seen multiple updates to the site since Walt’s passing. Sure, the store seems empty, but there’s content on the site. I don’t know who runs it, but I assume it’s either someone related to Walt or someone that acquired the assets from him or his family.
---
### Author:  [@Beliavsky](https://fortran-lang.discourse.group/u/Beliavsky)
#### Post date: [January 28, 2021, 4:13pm UTC](https://fortran-lang.discourse.group/t/fortran-com-site/637/3 "2021-01-28T16:13:06Z")
“Why do you think the site is not maintained? I’ve seen multiple updates to the site since Walt’s passing.”
The site still advertises [instruction in Modern Fortran by Walt](https://www.fortran.com/training/modern-fortran-2003-2008-2018/). It would be nice if the mentioned “CD with the class notes and examples” could be made available for sale or put in the public domain. Walt packaged gfortran on Windows, but the link to purchase [Fortran Tools 6.2 Available; Includes Coarrays and GTK for Graphical I/O](https://www.fortran.com/2018/05/20/fortran-tools-6-2-available-includes-coarrays-and-gtk-for-graphical-i-o/) is broken. Ideally that could be sold again, probably with a newer version of gfortran, or put in the public domain.
---
### Author:  [@milancurcic](https://fortran-lang.discourse.group/u/milancurcic)
#### Post date: [January 28, 2021, 4:22pm UTC](https://fortran-lang.discourse.group/t/fortran-com-site/637/4 "2021-01-28T16:22:50Z")
I agree. Making difficult software easier to install and use (or making difficult writing easier to read) have traditionally been successful business models.
---
### Author:  [@sblionel](https://fortran-lang.discourse.group/u/sblionel)
#### Post date: [January 28, 2021, 6:26pm UTC](https://fortran-lang.discourse.group/t/fortran-com-site/637/5 "2021-01-28T18:26:57Z")
[Fortran.com](http://Fortran.com) will be preserved. I can’t talk about the details yet, but it won’t get hijacked by some non-Fortran owner.
The Fortran Company has continued to do training based on Walt’s materials. I know of at least one active employee.
---
### Author:  [@billlong](https://fortran-lang.discourse.group/u/billlong)
#### Post date: [January 28, 2021, 9:17pm UTC](https://fortran-lang.discourse.group/t/fortran-com-site/637/6 "2021-01-28T21:17:11Z")
> [@Beliavsky](#):
>
> Fortran information on the site and sold Fortran compilers, tools, and books,
Regarding “Fortran information”, that is valuable. The Fortran Wikipedia page might be a good location for that.
Fortran compilers are, increasingly, free rather than “sold”. Ditto for tools. Even the Intel oneAPI package no longer requires a license and is free to download.
A list of books, perhaps with a short description or each is a good thing to include as part of the “Fortran information”. As far as “sales”, that activity has basically been taken over by Amazon.
---
### Author:  [@vmagnin](https://fortran-lang.discourse.group/u/vmagnin)
#### Post date: [February 5, 2021, 8:09am UTC](https://fortran-lang.discourse.group/t/fortran-com-site/637/7 "2021-02-05T08:09:01Z")
It’s OK for [fortran.com](http://fortran.com),
**but [fortran.org](http://fortran.org) is for sale**:
[http://fortran.org/](http://fortran.org/)
---
### Author:  [@Beliavsky](https://fortran-lang.discourse.group/u/Beliavsky)
#### Post date: [February 5, 2021, 9:05pm UTC](https://fortran-lang.discourse.group/t/fortran-com-site/637/8 "2021-02-05T21:05:14Z")
> [@vmagnin](#):
>
> It’s OK for [fortran.com](http://fortran.com),
> **but [fortran.org](http://fortran.org) is for sale**:
>
> [http://fortran.org/](http://fortran.org/)
>
> 
I inquired with the company, and they said it was for sale for $5000 but possibly for less. GoDaddy [estimates](https://www.godaddy.com/domain-value-appraisal/appraisal/?checkAvail=1&tmskey=&domainToCheck=fortran.org) the value to be $2521. Maybe the group could crowdfund the purchase – I would donate $100. It would be nice to have a site comparable to [python.org](http://python.org).
---
### Author:  [@FortranFan](https://fortran-lang.discourse.group/u/FortranFan)
#### Post date: [February 5, 2021, 10:28pm UTC](https://fortran-lang.discourse.group/t/fortran-com-site/637/9 "2021-02-05T22:28:14Z")
> [@Beliavsky](#):
>
> … the group could crowdfund the purchase – I would donate $100. It would be nice to have a site comparable to [python.org](http://python.org)
I agree entirely, I too will be more than happy to chime in with a similar donation.
It will be cool to have an international body to nurture and care for Fortran, purposefully and entirely independent of ISO and INCITS, and to whom the domain [fortran.org](http://fortran.org) can be dedicated.
---
### Author:  [@Samuel\_GF](https://fortran-lang.discourse.group/u/Samuel_GF)
#### Post date: [February 6, 2021, 12:30pm UTC](https://fortran-lang.discourse.group/t/fortran-com-site/637/11 "2021-02-06T12:30:26Z")
Just my opinion, but there are many options to .com or .org
Just check:
> **[Buy A Domain Name from GoDaddy](https://www.godaddy.com/domainsearch/find?checkAvail=1&domainToCheck=fortran)**
>
> Get the best domains name from GoDaddy. We have country domains, new domain extensions and all the traditional dot com, org, net and more domains to choose from.
And others like:
```
fortran.xyz
fortran.tech
fortran.zone
fortran.software
fortran.science
fortran.one
```
Even more, perhaps (let me be optimistic) there can be an agreement to use a subdomain inside `fortran.com`. Something like:
```
reference.fortran.com
info.fortran.com
language.fortran.com
start.fortran.com
```
---
### Author:  [@Beliavsky](https://fortran-lang.discourse.group/u/Beliavsky)
#### Post date: [February 6, 2021, 1:41pm UTC](https://fortran-lang.discourse.group/t/fortran-com-site/637/12 "2021-02-06T13:41:21Z")
> [@Samuel\_GF](#):
>
> Just my opinion, but there are many options to .com or .org
True, but many programming languages, compilers, libraries, and operating systems do have .org sites, for example [python.org](http://python.org), [perl.org](http://perl.org), [lua.org](http://lua.org), [cplusplus.org](http://cplusplus.org), [rexx.org](http://rexx.org), [scratch.org](http://scratch.org), [haskell.org](http://haskell.org), [clang.org](http://clang.org), [llvm.org](http://llvm.org), [g95.org](http://g95.org) (not maintained), [numpy.org](http://numpy.org), [scipy.org](http://scipy.org), [tensorflow.org](http://tensorflow.org), [pytorch.org](http://pytorch.org), [linux.org](http://linux.org), and [bsd.org](http://bsd.org) . Someone new to Fortran might go [fortran.org](http://fortran.org), and it would be nice if there were something there. Of course, googling “fortran” does lead to relevant sites, including [fortran-lang.org](http://fortran-lang.org). Related to FortranFan’s comments, a .org domain implies that a non-profit group is serving the language community.
---
### Author:  [@FortranFan](https://fortran-lang.discourse.group/u/FortranFan)
#### Post date: [February 6, 2021, 2:11pm UTC](https://fortran-lang.discourse.group/t/fortran-com-site/637/13 "2021-02-06T14:11:06Z")
> [@pmk](#):
>
> What would this non-ISO non-INCITS “body” do?
A lot of things that ORGs (with their .org sites) do for most programming languages: promote the language in many ways, advance the language in a number of ways including with the tooling and the ecosystem, and even protect the language, etc. in a somewhat structured manner with some institutional backing along with an ability and means to attract and retain patrons and sponsors.
---
### Author:  [@vmagnin](https://fortran-lang.discourse.group/u/vmagnin)
#### Post date: [February 6, 2021, 2:52pm UTC](https://fortran-lang.discourse.group/t/fortran-com-site/637/14 "2021-02-06T14:52:47Z")
Could [fortran.org](http://fortran.org) become an alias for [fortran-lang.org](http://fortran-lang.org) ?
---
### Author:  [@ivanpribec](https://fortran-lang.discourse.group/u/ivanpribec)
#### Post date: [February 6, 2021, 10:32pm UTC](https://fortran-lang.discourse.group/t/fortran-com-site/637/15 "2021-02-06T22:32:48Z")
I would also be willing to donate if the [fortran.org](http://fortran.org) would serve some community (non-profit) purpose.
---
### Author:  [@ivanpribec](https://fortran-lang.discourse.group/u/ivanpribec)
#### Post date: [February 6, 2021, 10:58pm UTC](https://fortran-lang.discourse.group/t/fortran-com-site/637/16 "2021-02-06T22:58:33Z")
Some possible ideas, copied from the [Python Software Foundation](https://www.python.org/psf/mission/) mission statement:
- Raise funds to support Fortran programs and services.
- Publicize, promote the adoption of, and facilitate the ongoing development of Fortran-related technology and educational resources. This includes, but is not limited to, maintaining a public web site, planning Fortran conferences, and offering grants to Fortran-related open source projects.
- Encourage and facilitate Fortran-related research in the public interest.
Ideas copied from the [C++ foundation](https://isocpp.org/about):
- Promote dissemination of correct and up-to-date information about modern Fortran.
- Promote greater availability of high-quality Fortran libraries, including both standard libraries (by reducing barriers to submitting and adopting libraries in standard Fortran itself) and community libraries (by having an organized, and ideally tool-supported, way for Fortran developers to discover and use libraries).
---
### Author:  [@milancurcic](https://fortran-lang.discourse.group/u/milancurcic)
#### Post date: [February 7, 2021, 3:41pm UTC](https://fortran-lang.discourse.group/t/fortran-com-site/637/17 "2021-02-07T15:41:32Z")
The mission items that @FortranFan and @ivanpribec listed are what fortran-lang already does, short of fundraising. I wrote in 2019 that a non-profit corp is the way to go forward (I still think so), but this involves a lot of busywork for which we just aren’t ready yet. And it’s premature to do so before a concrete funding opportunity. A potential good alternative to an independent non-profit (i.e. registering as a 501(c)(3) itself) is for fortran-lang to become a NumFOCUS project. They take care of administration and promotion for a modest fee.
I personally don’t see much ROI from purchasing a yet another domain at such a high cost ([fortran-lang.org](http://fortran-lang.org) cost $12 to register) and don’t approve of price gouging. We live in the time of search engines and fortran-lang is already near the top search results for the “fortran” keyword. Soon it will be #1. There may be somebody entering [fortran.org](http://fortran.org) into the address bar hoping it would give them something about Fortran, but I assume they’re in minority by far.
But of course everybody is free to donate their money how they want, and if people want to do anything Fortran with [fortran.org](http://fortran.org) domain, they have my support.
> [@vmagnin](#):
>
> Could [fortran.org](http://fortran.org) become an alias for [fortran-lang.org](http://fortran-lang.org) ?
This is technically easy to do and I wouldn’t oppose it. But I don’t think it’s a productive use of funds (consider donating to gcc/gfortran or [LFortran](https://numfocus.org/project/lfortran) instead). If the new domain would just redirect to fortran-lang, search engines would mark it as duplicate so it wouldn’t help the SEO. But it would help the rare occasional person who types that into the address bar. Is it worth it $5000? I bet not.
And another alternative is for [fortran.org](http://fortran.org) to be a yet another Org as some suggested. If there’s an obvious hole to be filled, I think that would be beneficial. But remember that registering a domain name is easy, building an Org is hard. 100+ people already put a lot of sweat in [fortran-lang.org](http://fortran-lang.org), so please consider helping out there, across several diverse and interesting projects.
---
### Author:  [@vmagnin](https://fortran-lang.discourse.group/u/vmagnin)
#### Post date: [February 7, 2021, 4:25pm UTC](https://fortran-lang.discourse.group/t/fortran-com-site/637/18 "2021-02-07T16:25:48Z")
Milan’s arguments are convincing, in my opinion. I don’t know how they decide their prices. OK, I understand that it’s a free market. But sure it’s a crazy one: an apple is 10$, an orange 500$ and a banana 5000$… 🍎 🟠 🍌 It does not make sense for me…
Let’s keep our tasty apple! It’s true that the important thing to have a good pagerank is the quality of the content, and the community now has both and deserves it. Let’s keep up the good work and give up the banana.
Maybe in a few years, [fortran-lang.org](http://fortran-lang.org) will be 5000$ and [fortran.org](http://fortran.org) 10$ (OK… let’s say 100$). That’s free market, isnt’it 😉
---
### Author:  [@certik](https://fortran-lang.discourse.group/u/certik)
#### Post date: [February 8, 2021, 1:36am UTC](https://fortran-lang.discourse.group/t/fortran-com-site/637/19 "2021-02-08T01:36:35Z")
I 100% agree with @milancurcic. Btw, many languages use the same style for their domains, both the `*-lang.org` style (more prevalent):
- [https://www.rust-lang.org/](https://www.rust-lang.org/)
- [https://www.ruby-lang.org/](https://www.ruby-lang.org/)
- [https://nim-lang.org/](https://nim-lang.org/)
- [https://racket-lang.org/](https://racket-lang.org/)
- [https://crystal-lang.org/](https://crystal-lang.org/)
- [https://elixir-lang.org/](https://elixir-lang.org/)
- [https://elm-lang.org/](https://elm-lang.org/)
as well as the `*lang.org` style:
- [https://julialang.org/](https://julialang.org/)
- [https://golang.org/](https://golang.org/)
- [https://ziglang.org/](https://ziglang.org/)
- [https://dlang.org/](https://dlang.org/)
See also Milan’s [comment](https://github.com/fortran-lang/stdlib/issues/110#issuecomment-575858781) on exactly this issue.
So I would stick with what we have, and rather concentrate on the content.
---
### Author:  [@milancurcic](https://fortran-lang.discourse.group/u/milancurcic)
#### Post date: [February 8, 2021, 5:29pm UTC](https://fortran-lang.discourse.group/t/fortran-com-site/637/20 "2021-02-08T17:29:33Z")
On topic, the Rust Foundation was announced today:
[https://foundation.rust-lang.org/posts/2021-02-08-hello-world/](https://foundation.rust-lang.org/posts/2021-02-08-hello-world/)
[https://foundation.rust-lang.org/](https://foundation.rust-lang.org/)
---
### Author:  [@vmagnin](https://fortran-lang.discourse.group/u/vmagnin)
#### Post date: [February 8, 2021, 5:52pm UTC](https://fortran-lang.discourse.group/t/fortran-com-site/637/21 "2021-02-08T17:52:20Z")
By the way, if I type “rust” in my french Google, [www.rust-lang.org](http://www.rust-lang.org) is in 4th position, because they have a french version of their site.
So this is linked to the discussion:
[Promoting Fortran in non-English languages](https://fortran-lang.discourse.group/t/promoting-fortran-in-non-english-languages/678/)
[Next page](https://fortran-lang.discourse.group/t/fortran-com-site/637.md?page=2)