2 comments about Introduction To Fortran 90/95 (B.E.S.T. Series).

1. Fortran is still widely used in science and engineering, though if you look at new computer books, you can scarcely tell this. Since those usually discuss languages like C, C++ and Java. But when it comes to raw number crunching, and where a GUI might be nice, but is strictly secondary, there is a ton of legacy code in Fortran.

   So there is still a need for a book like this, which discusses how to use the latest version, Fortran 95. What the author strives for is to cover something lacking in many older Fortran texts. Those tend to explain the syntax and how to write small programs, of a few thousand lines or less.

   But there is often little discussion on how to manage the complexity of libraries stretching to 10^5 lines or 10^6 lines of code. How can you maintain and understand and add to these bodies? Issues like unit testing, which quite often discussed in java or C++, are well described here. Design discipline is also emphasised.

   So if you are still writing in Fortran, and are wondering about coping with growing code, consider this book.




2. Precise and consice. Apparently the author knows how to communicate with his audience. The book is very easy to read, and by the time you have finished reading and implementing the examples you will definitely know how to do some basic coding with Fortran 95. Great buy!

1 comments about Numerical Recipes in FORTRAN Example Book: The Art of Scientific Computing.

1. This is really a great book of numerical examples. It teaches you on how to use those "abstract" numerical recipes. From here you will be a good commander of both numerical recipes and numerical programming. You will learn a lot of practical experience. You can not miss it! enjoy it.

3 comments about Introduction to FORTRAN 90 for Engineers and Scientists (Prentice Hall Modular Series for Engineering).

1. This book is quite appropriately named. It teaches the reader Fortran 90 in a clear, concise, and logical manner, exactly as an Engineer or Scientist would expect. This book goes a step beyond teaching Fortran by trying to teach the reader good programming style, common algorithms, and logic traps to avoid. Most all the examples relate in some way to problems commonly solved by Engineers and Scientists, thus showing how using the language can benifit and enhance the readers professional cababilities. However, this book does have its downfalls. A couple of the code examples have small errors in them, and certain topics are not covered as well as others. Overall, I believe this is an excellent book that does a great job of teaching the reader to program in Fortran 90.



2. I needed a book to get up and running in my new job as a Fortran programmer. This was just the book to do that! My job is in the engineering field and the book not only covered code that pertained to engineering concepts, but it also covered the necessary code and syntax that I was likely to encounter in the custom-built program that I will be maintaining/enhancing. It was just the right amount of delivery without being too much--enough to get my skill set updated. I would buy it again. It was worth every penny.



3. "Introduction to FORTRAN 90" will get you on the road to programming in FORTRAN 90 post haste. The foundations of the langauge are covered thoroughly and clearly with plenty of good examples.
   
   But FORTRAN 90 is a big language and it is not well served in this rather limited volume. Much that is useful and important in FORTRAN 90 you will find no mention of here. If you are doing some serious real-world programming, you will outgrow this book in, I predict, less than three months.
   
   Maybe this is a good buy if you know flat nothing about the language and want to start learning. But mind your budget, because if you continue FORTRAN90 programming you're going to need something better before long.

No comments about Fortran 77 for Engineers and Scientists.

5 comments about Fortran 90/95 for Scientists and Engineers.

1. I have found this book to be an excellent, outstanding reference. My only complaint is that the index was occasionally not detailed enough to allow me to easily locate a specific topic for which I was looking; on occasion I've had to page through a section to find what I'm looking for. (This review refers to the first edition, although the second edition is now out so this may have been corrected.) Otherwise, I've found it far superior to the two other Fortran books I've used. It contains many examples. In my view it's excellent as both a F77 and F90/95 reference.



2. This is probably one of the worst programming books I have ever used. The index is terrible, which turns finding any random info into a page by page scavenger hunt. There are very few tables which give nice breakdown of parameters and what not, as the author prefered to scatter information about a single function call through two or three chapters. The "scientific and engineering" aspect of programming is so spoon fed it really does nothing to enhance understanding of the subject.
   
   Further if you are new to programming this book will do more harm than good. In trying to explain the concept of a loop, showing how to count to 10 is a much better example than calculating sin( x) by series expansion. After all, if you have the math background to do such a thing, and even a small amount of programming know how ( gathered from GOOD reference books ) you can do this kind of stuff without the author pretty much telling you what algorythm to use. The extra effort to code the sin(x) example, therefore, just gets in the way and muddies up the original point of the example ( to demonstrate a loop in this case. )
   
   I was introduced to this book in a college physics programming course and was amazed at how horrible this book was for teaching the subject. Students with little to no programming experience ( but plenty of physics experience )were lost and confused because the examples do a poor job of showing you what they are suposed to, and those with already good programming skills in other languages about died from paper cuts searching through the book by hand to find the syntax of the print function. A poor book all the way around. After some searching it appears that a good "Teach yourself Fortran 90 in 21 days," type book is hard to come by, but that ( imo ) is what fortran really needs to make it accessible to potential new users of the language, since meshing the actual 'language' and the 'for scientists and engineers' stuff just makes everything more complicated than it needs to be for a reference book. The only scientific/math/programming book I ever actually sold back to the college when the course was over.



3. It is outrightly silly to rate this excellent book one star and insinuate that it is a terrible write-up. Is it the thin index that makes it so bad, or the explanation of do loops using sin(x) series expansion, according to the first reviewer? If you are a scientist or an engineer (the target audience of the book) you'll probably see the wisdom of such an example instead of counting from 1 to 10 as if we are inside a grocery store.
   
   This is an excellent book not just for sake of learning the fortran language but also for writing modern and easily maintanable codes and algorithms. Whether you are a "pure" or "hybrid" programmer, you couldn't ever ask for something more.
   I am sure the author will subsequently improve the indexing since most people seem to take an offence in that but the contents are just right.Of course Metcalf/Reid (Fortran 90/95 Explained) is also a very good text but is largely for reference purposes. Metcalf/Reid DOES NOT and will not teach you the nitty-gritty of fortran programming. In Metcalf/Reid, you must already have been there in programming, but Chapman will gradually take you to whatever level you deisre, depending on what you need. Very importantly, Chapman sprinkles throughout the text, several scientific and engineering examples and I guess it is why the text was so named in the first place - Fortran 90/95 for Scientists and Engineers.
   
   It doesn't matter if you figure that you are way too cerebral and that Chapman is too simplistic for you. If you ever want to venture into programming, chances are that you are not an imbecile and any additional little knowledge gained is always an eternal treasure. This is an excellent text for programming in Fortran 90/95 and you'll be grateful that you did own a copy. Period.



4. Despite some of the negative comments on this book, I bought it anyway. The remarks that this is not a reference manual is unjust. Chapman never claims that the book is supposed to be a reference manual, so don't expect one. The book is written for those who begin to learn Fortran 95 or want to upgrade their skills to make the transition from Fortran 77.
   
   The build-up of the book is excellent. After every Chapter I had the feeling I learned something new, and understood how the Fortran 95 features would help me code more efficiently than in Fortran 77 (which I have done for about 20 years). The exercises and examples help a lot in that direction and I really appreciate the way in which Chapman uses real-life problems, like sorting names or phone numbers, or small physics problems.
   
   It has been said in reviews that the index is marginal, but that is clearly fixed in the Second Edition (the index is 20 pages long). Another suggestion that the examples are too simple is also unjust. I've learned quite a bit from them. Don't forget that it is no use to make the examples and exercises so difficult that they become untractable.
   
   On the critical side I can add a few items of discontent:
   - There are quite a few typos and errors in the book and despite the reference to the publishers website where errata should be found, that website doesn't even seem to know that the Second Edition exists. All the material there is for the first edition.
   - I do not see the use for providing flowcharts AND pseudo code next to the actual Fortran 95 code. The pseudo code is so much like the real code that it is just a waste of space. Flowcharts would suffice.
   - Chapman gets a bit repetitive at times. At the end of each Chapter it repeats the "Good practices" and the newly introduced commands and statements basically verbatim from earlier in that Chapter. Also each Quiz quite annoyingly starts with the sentence "This quiz provides a quick check to see if you understand the concepts introduced in this section......"
   
   Overall "Fortran 90/95 for Scientists and Engineers" lives up to its title. Assuming that Fortran 95 is mostly used by scientists and engineers this is a really good book to start learning Fortran 95. At the end of it you will be able to write efficient and correct Fortran 95 code.



5. I am currently enrolled in a course called high performance computing and this was the recommended text. I basically do not anything about computers let alone programming itself. This course was a 3rd yr maths subject. I found this book really easy to read, I could pick up the concepts and logic behind it all pretty easily and be right into the discussion within seconds. Lots of examples and test cases with concepts explained pretty clearly, even questions that you are likely to ask are all answered. If you never learnt to program, or new to fortran, this is the THE book to read. I pretty much just read this book and teach myself, I find it alot more use of my time than going lectures when I can just read fortran in my time. just for the record, look up fortan in wikipedia, this text is the first reference.

5 comments about Schaum's Outline of Programming With Fortran 77 (Schaum's Outlines).

1. This book is too elementary to be helpful for anybody with any experience in programming.



2. My undergrad mech. eng. program uses MATLAB exclusively and I now need to learn FORTRAN for graduate school in less than a week. Despite the low rating for this book and knowing that it may be too elementary, I picked it up anyways just because of my experience with Schaum's outline.

   Indeed, this book is very elementary and doesn't addresses some of the problems that I might need to solve. But this book is an OUTLINE of programming in FORTRAN. I consider myself an experienced programmer (not expert, just experienced) and I'm halfway through this book in an hour. It shows me all I need to know before I start exploring FORTRAN myself.

   Overall, I think this book works like the owner manual for your car. You read it once then put it aside for a couple of years. But for $17, I think this is a very good buy. It will show you what you need to know fast. Just don't expect it to do your laundry and cook your dinner (dorm life humor).




3. This is a good resource manual for Fortran code builders. It has the basic resources that define Fortran concepts and syntax. No programming book can address specific problems you might be working with in code design, but the better books give you the foundations and tips necessary to keep you on track when using the language. I have found this manual helpful as it helps build code that will compile under all later version compilers.



4. This is a very good book for those who does not know programming with fortran 77 but would like to learn it in a relatively short period of time. It is also a good reference for those who writes fortran 77 codes and in need of a source to have a quick look at programming rules and examples. I used this book to write codes for my simulations in my PhD study. I recommend it.



5. For Fortran beginners this would be a good friend of yours but using it with other books such as Introduction to Fortran or other published tutorials on the web would put the icing to the cake.I recommend 'Interractive fortran 77- A hands on Approach' by Ian D Chivers et al.-which is also an online book to supplement this book.In that way you will be kickin' some fortran.

5 comments about Numerical Recipes in FORTRAN 77: The Art of Scientific Computing.

1. This volume, and its companions for other programming languages, is an absolute classic. The authors strike the right balance between cookbook solutions and theory, so that most of us get just enough background to choose the right algorithm but not so much to get drowned in theory. This edition is the first devoted only to Fortran, but is the second edition published by the authors. It includes a number of additions and corrections, many of which appeared in Computers in Physics (now the journal Computing in Science and Engineering published jointly by the IEEE and the APS). My only criticism is, where were these books twenty years ago when I needed them? I would recommend these books to anyone involved in the application of numerical methods. They are tremendous time savers.

   I never bothered with the discs, as most of the routines are fairly short and not a problem to type in, but I recommend the companion example books to help get the routines running.




2. This book contains hundreds of "canned codes" in the FORTRAN language. The book provides several variations of many popular numerical techniques and provides the most stream line (comp. time) codes available. Most codes allow for optimization to be build in, such as an RK4 (4th Order Runge-Kutta) with variable steps sizes. Great if you don't want to write your own code for a subroutine, or it you just don't know the method well enough to write it yourself. The book also provides some basic explaination of the techniques and codes with is very helpful so that the code is less of a black box, although its not that detailed.

   There is also a CD available that has the codes already written and ready to go. I prefer to type it in on my own, or just make my own because it gives a better udnerstanding of what the code is doing. The biggest turn-off for me is that some codes have subroutines upon subroutines which can make things a mess.

   All around a useful tool for programmers, researchers, and students.




3. I first bought this text in 1994 while doing scientific programming for graduate school work. A fellow graduate student had suggested I use an undocumented routine that (I later discovered) came from Numerical Recipes (NR). I was impressed enough with NR's presentation of ideas that I also bought the example book ISBN 0521437210 (which I've hardly cracked since) and a diskette of source code (which cost as much as the book but worth it). I was able to do a lot of basic research quickly with NR code, and I still occasionally use NR's routines.

   The authors have certainly done a good job assimilating a lot of material. Since other reviewers have done well to highlight the importance and utility of this landmark book, there is no need to repeat those sentiments here. However, to this title's detriment, the authors consider their book to be a proprietary library of source code more valuable than the explanatory text discussing it (one can in fact download the text on-line though it's hardly worth the hassle). This perception is ironic since the authors confess that "the lineage of many programs in common circulation is often unclear" (p.xviii), and many details of presentation, ideas, and algorithms are clearly "borrowed" from other excellent (some now out-of-print) numerical methods books or journals.

   I often wondered why NR routines occasionally adopted bizarre and/or obviously inefficient programming structures - over time I decided that this was probably done to make these algorithms appear as so not to clearly violate other published material. As a student, NR's legal disclaimers regarding derivative works (p.xvi) never bothered me and I was willing to overlook the sometimes unpolished source code insofar as it functioned properly. However, as a professional I now find the lack of fair-use provisions on the uncompiled source way too restrictive to rely on these routines in good conscience (I have to buy another textbook or license for every soft copy or machine upon which the source code resides!). I suspect this policy ultimately hurts NR's textbook sales: it would be nice to able to use and pass along the source code between professional colleagues without restriction because most would certainly buy (if they don't already own) the textbook to understand what the source does (just as I did). Source code used in scientific programming is practically worthless without proper documentation, and there's no better documentation than a full length textbook!

   I have since expanded my numerical methods library to other references supporting true public-domain codes. With an expanded basis of comparison, I regret to say that I am becoming less and less impressed with NR's implementations and explanations. I am finding many of NR's algorithms to be inefficient or unnecessarily approximate, and - on rare occasion - buggy. There have been quite a few bugs uncovered over the years, and the NR web site has done a good job of keeping track of them (although I know of at least one bug uncorrected by NR to this day).

   This book is excellent for students wanting a good reference for quick and dirty types of analyses or scientific computing. Professional programmers, scientists, engineers, specialists or analysts performing software development for laboratory or scientific research would be well advised to reference this title, but ultimately they will likely need to rely other resources if they require efficient and/or unrestricted (public-domain) source codes for their work.

   (P.S. - A reviewer elsewhere noted that the "quality of the binding was terrible" and I've also found this to be the case. My hardcover is literally had to be taped on after a few years of use.)




4. This is the single best book that I have found for teaching numerical methods in science and engineering to upper division undergraduates and graduate students. Students often comment that this should be the selected text even in the programming course because it provides both an overview of the methods and examples that demonstrate the application. The discussions are excellent and the Fortran 77 programs easy to follow even if one is more familiar with C or C++. You should not purchase the Fortran 90 version of this book without getting this book as well because the Fortran 90 book does not contain the excellent discussion of the methods and procedures. Rather it references this book for discussion and simply provides the F90 versions of the routines.



5. First, I want to weigh in on the general controversy over Press et al.'s treatment of the code as proprietary. This is a joke and I think was basically intended as such. A lot of the odd job programming world still works on the honor system, and it works, because enough of us respect what is done right and we respect other people's labor. But if you've already plunked down your $60 for the book, and you have a program that in some sense you are paid for (not that you're Adobe or someone big), they expect you to be crawling to them for permission to use a single routine. And yet these routines make use of other routines that I really doubt they wrote. I see the same basic code floating around a number of places. And for some things, it's so straightforward it seems crazy to say that it is "their" routine.
   
   At the same time, the code is clear, well explained with examples, and--most important--easy to modify. Given a choice between two versions, one which was elegant but a bit confusing and one that was straightforward, they did the second.
   
   Given that there's a new edition, and that we are 30 years past FORTRAN 77, you might wonder whether this book should still be in circulation. But there are a lot of industrial machines that are still running programs written in 77, say for process control, and it's nice to be able to alter them as opposed to starting from scratch. For example, you might find that a minimization routine actually can help for a program running the control of a valve in a mixing vat. Some of these routines are slow, but my attitude is, that just gives you more time to drink your coffee and look around, though of course, you might not like what you see. [12]

5 comments about Fortran 95/2003 Explained (Numerical Mathematics and Scientific Computation).

1. The review by V. Rau descibes the book very well. I am not sure that I can add much. There is a wealth of information. However, it reads like a specification for program language yet to be written. The information is all there but be prepared to figure out for yourself how to use the specifications that they list. Fortran is the language of choice for number crunching problems. I was at a loss most of the time to try to figure out how the newer specifications that they list could apply to the number crunching.



2. Amongst all the new computer books these days, it is rare to find one on Fortran. This text will have much familiar to programmers of earlier versions. The authors go on about Fortran 95 and its 2003 sibling. Yet it is still recognisably much like F77.
   
   The presentation is advanced. The level of difficulty of the syntax explanations is considerably above an elementary text. An important section advises on how to interoperate with C. Variables in one might map into variables in the other, using an ISO Binding scheme.
   
   But perhaps the most important aspect of F2003 is that it allows object oriented coding. Using type extensions and polymorphism. However, after going through the text, it still seems not as easy as C++ or Java.



3. I have some 20 years experience in coding in Fortran 77, but finally needed to catch up with Fortran 95 and 2003. I have also bought "Fortran 90/95 for Scientists and Engineers" by Stephen Chapman and found that a much better book for beginners in Fortran 95. "Fortran 95/2003 Explained" reads, as other reviewers have noted, like a language reference. There is basically no build-up in this book and I also have the feeling that in earlier Chapters it is expected that you already know what comes in later Chapters. The examples in the book are rarely explanatory to me, they leave me often without a clear understanding of what purpose is served.
   
   For those who want to learn Fortran 95 (even for those who are already fluent in Fortran 77) I would recommend to buy the book by Stephen Chapman instead. If you want a reference manual, "Fortran 95/2003 Explained" will likely serve you well.



4. Very difficult to read. Assumes no previous knowledge of Fortran, yet does not quite show the reader how to actually write a functional program until late in the book. Chapman's book(s) are much better.



5. This book is the best on the subject of Fortran 95/2003, but there's not a lot of competition. It has a specific target audience: practicing computer professionals. Don't pick it up if you are not already familiar with object-oriented programming, derived data types, pointers, etc. This is not the book from which to learn those concepts.
   
   It's a pity that there does not exist a book to bridge the gap between Fortran 77 (which the majority of the Fortran code base uses) and Fortran 95/2003. If you are a Fortran 77 programmer looking to learn Fortran 95/2003, this probably isn't the book for you. If you are a proficient C++ or Java programmer looking to pick up Fortran (there can't be very many of you) then you will find this book very helpful.

3 comments about Introduction to Programming with Fortran: with coverage of Fortran 90, 95, 2003 and 77.

1. No previous coding experience in Fortran is assumed by the authors. Actually, no previous programming in any language. Fortran is quite easy to learn, compared to others like C++ or Java or C#. The book explains the differences between the 4 major recent versions of Fortran. Though some of you might quibble as to why the book even talks about Fortran 77. That originated in 1977!
   
   But the sheer mass of legacy code means that a lot still exists in F77. This market reality also has job implications. Some Fortran jobs will necessitate you being restricted to F77. Or F90. Hence the book's support for these. At least it does not talk about F66!



2. This book does not assume any prior knowledge and provides a good intro to Fortran programming (also provides a short intro to programming in general). Goes over the essential elements needed to get started with Fortran and provides many examples. In fact, most of the concepts are demonstrated using actual coding examples. One drawback is that the index in this book is not extensive, so it does not serve quite as well as a reference. However, it still does a decent job in this department. After reading through this book I felt well-prepared to begin programming in Fortran. A nice complement to getting this book is to download one of the freely available Fortran documentation manuals (e.g. from Intel) to serve as a reference guide.



3. Definitively, an excellent book that I enthusiastically recommend. I've been programming in Fortran (mainly 77) some years ago, so I needed to recycle not only my knowledge about the language but also my way of focussing tasks susceptible of being programmed. This book fully fulfilled my expectations.

2 comments about Fortran 95/2003 for Scientists & Engineers.

1. This book is a good reference for programmers to have on hand and also a good book to read cover to cover to get a full understanding of fortran and its latest capabilities.



2. Well, I liked this book very much and therefore I want to write a short opinion/review on it (although I am short on time here and have never written an opinion on amazon before!). To put it concisely, this is a 'must have' book for any Fortran programmer. If you are shopping for a good Fortran book, this is what you are looking for! It takes you from the very first step and drops you off at a fairly high level around chapter 9. (And from where, I guess, instead of a book, you would like to consult your compiler's documentation!)
   
   My background is in financial engineering, and I was looking for some specialized number-crunching language to write my code in (real-time models). A friend suggested Fortran, and after consulting some serious people in physics/engineering, I decided to settle on it. My problem was that there were only a handful of Fortran books here, and only that many reviews on them. So I picked this one along with METCALF/REID/COHEN's 'fortran 95/2003 explained'. And I must say that a lack of quantity was compensated for by an abundance of quality.
   
   Chapman has also incorporated a lot of example code in this book, and that makes it worthwhile to cheat a bit before tackling a new chapter! He also stresses a lot on good programming practice, and his background makes us take his suggestions seriously. Those who work on mission-critical industrial strength code in financial industry know what I am talking about. So, if you are a newbie to Fortran, and want to learn it correctly the first time, you should consider this book. If you have a higher budget, consider METCALF et al. as an additional aid.
   
   my 2 cents!