Modern Fortran explained
by Michael Metcalf, John Reid, Malcolm Cohen · first published 2011
11mentions
7recommended by
8HN commenters
2015–2025first – last mentioned
88% recommend13% neutral
Why HN recommends it
Thorough, example-driven coverage of modern Fortran (F90 onward, including Fortran 2018) with explanations that beat scattered online answers; suits anyone doing numerical or legacy scientific code work.
Summarised by Claude from recommending comments
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I have the book Modern Fortran Explained by Metcalf. It does a great job of providing modern examples of traditional code as well as examples of the new features.
on “The new features of Fortran 2018 [pdf]” ↗…other online Fortran compilers for education and testing on the fly. Just search the terms on the web. Here is a good one I often use: https://www.tutorialspoint.com/compile_fortran_online.php The book "Modern Fortran Explained: Incorporating Fortran 2018" by Metcalf et al (or the older Fortran 2008 version of it published in 2011) is an excellent resource (although it is too comprehensive for an absolute beginner). Whatever…
on “Ask HN: Is Fortran worth learning in this day and age?” ↗Might not be full bible level of importance, but if you intend to do any work on Fortran and legacy science codes, "Modern Fortran Explained" by Metcalf, Reid, and Cohen is a must. Better examples and explanations than anything you can find on stack overflow with a focus on f90 (the most commonly accepted flavour) while also discussing the…
on “Ask HN: What are the bibles of Computer Science?” ↗Fortran Wiki is an OK place to start: http://fortranwiki.org/fortran/show/HomePage There are quite a number of books. I recently got this one that is pretty good: https://www.amazon.com/Modern-Fortran-Explained-Incorporatin... One note, Fortran 2018 compliance in the compilers is still evolving, so not all features are in all compilers yet. Fortran 95/2003 support should be solid and most all have all of 2008…
on “Fast high-level programming languages” ↗…documentation/lack of modern tutorials appalling There isn't good modern Fortran textbooks/courses on the web. But there are some textbooks that cover the language well. Especially: Metcalf, Reid, Cohen: Modern Fortran Explained, 2018.
on “Optimization Without Derivatives: Prima Fortran Version and Inclusion in SciPy” ↗The canonical reference is "Modern Fortran Explained: Incorporating Fortran 2018" by Metcalf, Reid, and Cohen. It is accurate but terse. More pedagogical but deliberately less complete (focusing on modern Fortran) is "Modern Fortran: Building efficient…
on “Ask HN: Resources for getting started with modern Fortran?” ↗…and later standards (we're up to Fortran 2018) are much different from FORTRAN 77 and earlier. Someone who likes the array programming of Julia, Matlab, R, or Python/Numpy should also consider Fortran. "Modern Fortran Explained" is the canonical book, but it is a bit terse, and I would start with some tutorials online and use the gfortran, the Fortran compiler in gcc.
on “Ask HN: Your favourite non-mainstream programming language?” ↗Modern Fortran is amazing. Force your company to move to Fortran 2008 and beyond. A good reference book is Modern Fortran Explained: Incorporating Fortran 2018.
on “IBM will offer free COBOL training” ↗Yes; I am seriously thinking of getting the "Modern Fortran Explained" book (https://academic.oup.com/book/56095). Modern Fortran has everything (Procedural, OO, Functional, Multithreading, Parallel etc. features) that all modern languages have. I would say it is no longer…
on “Learning Fortran (2024)” ↗…and Cohen[1] to be a fairly clear refresher on Fortran. Unfortunately, the build tools I use don't support many of the nicer features like user-defined types. [1] https://books.google.ca/books/about/Modern_Fortran_Explained...
on “Why NASA Needs a Programmer Fluent in Fortran and Assembly Language” ↗I ordered "Modern Fortran Explained: Incorporating Fortran 2023 6th. Edition" and will read it when it arrives. https://global.oup.com/academic/product/modern-fortran-expla...
on “Ask HN: What programming language book(s) are you reading?” ↗