INTRODUCTION 
 ************

 Purpose of this guide
 ---------------------
 FORTRAN is not a dead language, the majority of programs used and
 developed in the scientific and engineering communities are still
 written in FORTRAN. High-performance computing is mostly done in
 one of the parallel dialects of FORTRAN.

 FORTRAN is simply better suited for numerical computation, see the 
 chapter "comparison between FORTRAN and C". Fortran 90 is the best
 designed and most efficient computing language. 

 This guide concentrates on good programming practices and technical 
 and numerical issues, topics that are not discussed in introductory 
 courses and regular textbooks.

 We will try to provide a clear exposition of subjects with which
 a programmer should be familiar, and which are not discussed in 
 the brief introductory Fortran courses, on the basis of which
 many science students attempt large programming projects. 


 How to get this guide
 ---------------------
 The guide and the information it contains are free (GNU-wise),
 and will continue to be so. It is the collective property of
 all these kind people who contributed some information to it.

 Web access:

    http://www3.huji.ac.il/~agay/unfp/unfp.html
    http://shum.cc.huji.ac.il/~agay/fortran/unfp/unfp.html

 Anonymous FTP:

    ftp://vms.huji.ac.il/fortran/

 All URLs are updated regularly. 

 Our mirror sites are:

    http://sunsite.icm.edu.pl/fortran/             (Poland)
    http://sunsite.unc.edu/pub/languages/fortran/  (USA)
    http://sunsite.univalle.edu.co/fortran/        (Columbia)
    http://sunsite.univie.ac.at/Fortran-Guide/     (Austria)
    http://sunsite.nstu.nsk.su/fortran-guide/      (Russia)


 If you want to mirror the guide, FTP the files at least 
 twice a week, and please drop me a note. 
 
    mailto:agay@vms.huji.ac.il


 Contents policy
 ---------------
 Some interesting topics are not discussed, because they were 
 deemed too advanced or of only limited relevance. for example 
 we have omitted treatment of the following features:

   Source code analyzers (except FTNCHEK) 
   Module management systems and utilities (VMS/MMS, UNIX/make)
   Profilers (VMS/PCA, UNIX/prof, UNIX/gprof, SGI/pixie, 
              SUN/SPARCworks Analyzer)
   Code management systems (VMS/CMS, VMS/RCS, UNIX/RCS, UNIX/SCCS)

 Throughout the text, operating system commands are indicated for 
 the following operating systems:  VMS, SunOS, IRIX, ULTRIX, 
 DUNIX (formerly OSF/1), UNICOS, AIX and HP-UX. 


 Conduct policy
 --------------
 It may not help much, but we would like to say again that personal 
 flaming and rude behaviour are detrimental to human relations and 
 the free flow of information in particular.


 Acknowledgments
 ---------------
 Keith Bierman who contributed so many insightful and instructive 
 comments, and for his kindness at the early stages that kept the 
 guide alive.

 Walt Brainerd for a number of very good comments and moral support.

 Arne Vajhoej for his substantial contributions to so many chapters,
 and numerous other helpful suggestions. Without Arne the guide 
 probably would have aborted prematurely. 

 Steve Lionel for checking most of the DEC related info.

 Clive Page for the good comments and interesting information, 
 and for the highly positive radiation.

 Sergio Gelato for the substantial contributions to many chapters,
 it's a pity he didn't have more time.

 Dan Pop for the good comments and suggestions.

 Dieter Britz for the good comments and moral support.

 Craig Burley who patiently passed over the first two sections and
 had many important comments, contributed interesting information, 
 and made some difficult and subtle points clear.

 Timothy Prince for the many important comments on many chapters.


 Error reporting
 ---------------
 All errors and inaccuracies which remain in the text are the 
 responsibility of:

        agay@vms.huji.ac.il

 who would appreciate notification of any that you find, as well
 as of any comments and suggestions that you wish to make. 


 Special thanks to
 -----------------
    The Hebrew University Computing Center for providing access 
    to all these operating systems, and to the dedicated staff 
    who patiently helped, in particular to Dudu Rashty for the 
    web access, Yehavi Bourvine and Juliana Solomon for the 
    anonymous ftp access.

    Thanks a lot to the kind people who provides the mirror
    sites:

      Donald Ball, North Carolina University
      Wojtek Sylwestrzak, ICM Warsaw University
      Konrad Neuwirth, Vienna University
      Gabriel E. G. Lopez, Universidad del Valle
      Vitaly A. Filatov, Novosibirsk State Technical University