Introduction to Fortran

Learn the basics of the widely used language for scientifc computing

A poster displaying the name of the workshop beside a picture of a young man using a computer.

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There are millions (maybe billions) of Fortran code lines of scientific code in daily use for very good reasons (primarily it's high efficiency). Some of these codes are several decades old and will be with us for decades to come for reasons to be explained. It can be intimidating for anyone to start maintaining and develop such a code base. This workshop will introduce you to the language, it's history and today's capabilities (like a.o. dynamic allocation, pointers, object orientation and offloading to accelerators). After the workshop you should have some foundation to start using the language.

Learning outcomes

  • Know data types and why typing range and precision are important.

  • Be able to read and understand old 1966 standard Fortran.

  • Know how to modernise old code with new elements.

  • Know dynamic allocations, pointers, vector syntax, modules, objects, macros. Understand how input and output is organised.

  • Offloading to Accelerators (GPUs) using ISO standard Fortran.

Prerequisites

Know how to program using C/C++, Python, Julia etc. This is not an introduction to programming. Users are expected to have some programming skills.

Target audience

Users who suddenly are exposed to scientific Fortran code. Read it, maintain it, edit and update is and add to it. Users who see the benefit of learning to use Fortran for scientific programming.

Required Materials

Laptop with Fortran installed.

Organizer

Ole W. Saastad
Published Oct. 24, 2023 5:07 PM - Last modified Feb. 2, 2024 12:43 PM