No comments about Fortran IV With Watfor and Watfiv (Prentice-Hall series in automatic computation).

No comments about Fortran 77 Programming: With an Introduction to the Fortran 90 Standard (International Computer Science Series).

1 comments about UNIX for FORTRAN Programmers (Nutshell Handbooks).

1. This is another one of those white books from O'Reilly about UNIX. I can't seem to get anywhere with it. Does explain command line UNIX and UNIX architecture. I guess there are so many areas one can be a guru in that not all of us have the time to be UNIX gurus. From what I hear too the work environment at computer corporations is very alientating for UNIX gurus.

1 comments about Fortran for Scientists and Engineers.

1. As someone who first learnt programming using Fortran, and then spent many years in uni writing Fortran code, I guess it is encouraging to see books still come out about it. But the bulk of this book could have be written 10 or even 15 years earlier. Fortran changes so glacially, for one thing. (Though global warming might one day change the meaning of this phrase.)
   
   Who wants or needs this book? Mostly someone assigned to maintain a large engineering or scientific code base in Fortran. Maintenance programming is necessary; someone has to do it. But if you have enough raw ability and interest in programming, try looking for a job that does not require this book.

No comments about Fortran for the '90s: Problem Solving for Scientists and Engineers.

4 comments about Programmer's Guide to Fortran 90.

1. After looking through most of the available texts, we chose this this book to teach a course on Fortran-90 to scientists and engineers at NASA. It is especially helpful to programmers with a good understanding of Fortran-77 who want to make the transition to this powerful revision of the language. The book covers the most useful new features (array processing, allocateable memory, derived types, encapsulation) very thoroughly. The writing is generally clear, cogent, and understandable. The only thing lacking is a complete treatment of language intrinsic functions, for which you need the large (and expensive) language handbook.



2. I use this book over the Compaq fortran 90 language manual sometimes. Examples are easy to follow and the writing is very clear. Many examples. There is a nice section at the back on obsolete fortran 77 conventions, and their replacements. It's a nice compact book too - you don't realize how much information it contains because it's not enormous and heavy. I recommend it to anybody



3. A book to steer clear of: a programming book without a single figure or drawing, with the poorest pagination I've ever seen. Impossible to find the options for open for instance. Worthless.



4. This book is one of the worst programming books you can find.
   The concept explanations are vague in many instances. Some example
   codes are too long and distract the reader from the concepts the
   authors are tring to teach. Fortran 90 language was built with object-oriented capabilities, but this concept is almost completely absent. Only a few words about public and private keywords. Also the index at back is defficient.
   Trim this book of unnecessary examples and easy concepts. Add
   object-oriented features and some editing. Then it should be a better book.
   
   The only think I like is that the book has about 440 pages, unlike the monstruous 1000-plus pages of other programming books
   containing too much unnecessary talk.

No comments about Fortran 77 With 90: Applications for Scientists and Engineers.

1 comments about Problem Solving with Fortran 90: For Scientists and Engineers (Undergraduate Texts in Computer Science).

1. Brooks gives you an introduction to the idea of using a computer to solve numerical problems. No previous experience with computing is assumed. He starts from scratch by explaining enough about the structure of a computer so that you can appreciate what is required in coding. He chose Fortran 90 as the language of instruction. There is no user interface. Which certainly does simplify the text. He focuses on the intrinsics of taking a problem, finding a [possible] solution, and coding that solution.
   
   Quite aside from no user interface, Fortran is a procedural language. So the book goes into how to decompose a solution in this context. You should be aware that this can lead to scaling problems if your solution code gets large. Which is why object oriented approaches are preferred. But for the problems used in the text, and for those you are likely to encounter, this should not be an issue.

No comments about High-Resolution Graphics Using Fortran 77.

No comments about Illustrating FORTRAN.