The F Programming Language

The F programming language is a dramatic new development in scientific programming. Building on the well-established strengths of the Fortran family of languages, it is carefully crafted to be both safe and regular, whilst retaining the enormously powerful numerical capabilities of its parent language, Fortran 90, as well as its data abstraction capability. Thus, an array language becomes available as part of a medium-size, widely-available language for the first time. In this respect,the language is clearly superior to older ones such as Pascal, C, and Basic. The book begins with an introductory chapter, then describes, in turn, the features of the language: language elements, expressions and assignments, control constructs, program units and procedures, array features, intrinsic procedures, and the input/output facilities. It is completed by six appendices, including the difference between F and Fortran 90, and solutions to most of the exercises. In the absence of a formal standard for F, this book is the defining document for the language, setting out the complete syntax and semantics of the language in a readable but thorough way. It is essential reading for users of F.