A programming language widely used for scientific computation. The first version, Fortran I, was issued by IBM in 1956, to be succeeded by Fortran II in 1958. This in turn was succeeded by Fortran IV, also known as Fortran 66 when it was standardized by ANSI. This became the workhorse of the scientific world until it was replaced by Fortran 77. This version retained the flavour of the original Fortran but introduced some more modern concepts as a gesture towards structured programming. Fortran 90 appeared after long and acrimonious discussion, and incorporates a large number of new capabilities. It incorporates most of the concepts and facilities of modern languages, though not always expressed in the most elegant manner. The latest version, Fortran 2003, includes support for object-oriented programming.

Fortran programs use a notation strongly reminiscent of algebra (hence formula translation), and it is thus fairly easy for the scientist to specify a computation. Fortran II introduced the important idea of independent compilation of subroutines, making it possible to establish libraries of scientific subroutines. The efficient code produced by the early Fortran compilers did much to ensure the acceptance of high-level languages as a normal mode of use of computers.

http://gcc.gnu.org/wiki/GFortranStandards Links to standards for the various versions of Fortran