Lately I have been learning the old programming language, Fortran. I don’t particularly like Fortran or plan to use it, but I have run out of things to learn about C++, Java, Python, or C#. So far I have learned how to work with numbers, loops, and arrays. Today I have learned how to work with strings. Formatting numeric output in Fortran is a little tricky so I will have to create a separate topic in my notes for that. I am running Fortran using GNU Fortran or GFortran which is part of my Cygwin installation.

I was using Visual Studio Code as my code editor but it does not integrate well with a Fortran compiler. I have discovered that the NetBeans IDE works a lot better. NetBeans  will run my code by creating the necessary make file automatically. I had to create my own Fortran Syntax Highlighting file, shBrushFortran.js, to use with SyntaxHighlighter 3.0.83, the old JavaScript library developed by Alex Gorbatchev. This gives me Fortran syntax highlighting in my HTML notes.

The only mildly useful thing I have learned so far is that Fortran supports complex numbers. I have been working with complex numbers to reproduce some geometric designs which are based on the complex plane. I have been improving my math skills and Learning Fortran may help with that since this programming language is mainly used for science.