When FORTRAN was born, FORTRAN was called automatic programming

o1 Pro.icon

The term "Fortran was called 'automatic programming' at the time of its birth" is not strictly speaking "the name Fortran itself was 'automatic programming'" but rather "the term 'automatic coding' or 'automatic programming' was used at that time to refer to all the systems for translating high-level languages into machine language. Fortran itself was "automatic programming,"" but rather, "At that time, mechanisms for translating high-level languages into machine language were collectively called "automatic coding" or "automatic programming. It is more accurate to say that Fortran was referred to in this context as a type of "automatic programming".

Commentary:.

In the 1950s, the term "automatic programming" or "automatic coding" was used to refer to mechanisms that automatically generated code for assembly or machine language.

Fortran (Formula Translator) was released in 1957 as a high-level language for the IBM 704 and was sometimes called the "FORTRAN Automatic Coding System" in documents from that time.

However, the name "Fortran" itself was not officially called "automatic programming." It is closer to the fact that Fortran was also called such in the context of "automatic programming" for compiler technology in general at that time.

Early Fortran documentation introduced a compiler developed for the IBM 704 as the "FORTRAN Automatic Coding System," which refers to a mechanism for automatically generating machine language from high-level mathematical descriptions.

Specifically, the FORTRAN Programmer's Reference Manual for the IBM 704 published in October 1956 and a paper by Backus et al.

The following is an example of a quote that illustrates the concept of FORTRAN automated translation.

"It describes the system which accepts a source program written in a language resembling ordinary mathematics and produces an object program in 704 machine language."

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