programming language

Stephen Chapman has managed to create a book that is indispensable to any engineer who is using the FORTRAN language. "Fortran 90/95 for Scientists and Engineers" is an extremely useful guide and teaching tool, no matter what level you are currently at. Whether you are a first time user or a die-hard FORTRAN expert, you will find this book quite valuable.

Chapman has gone to great pains to teach first time users the best techniques and habits. He has also done a stellar job in discussing what changes have been implemented since FORTRAN 77. The discussions on obsolete procedures and techniques are quite useful for anyone who must work with old legacy codes.

Many of the most powerful tools in FORTRAN are quite cumbersome and confusing, Chapman has done an excellent job in explaining and demonstrating these tools through his extensive use of examples.

This book is superb, and is my one and only resource for FORTRAN programming.

I had some exposure to Fortran programming in several of my college courses, but have been lacking in the way of a good reference the few times since that I have had to work with Fortran code. As an engineer in an industry that relies heavily on codes written in Fortran, many of them with portions that are 20-30 years old, I was in search of a general reference book that would help me find my way through these codes. Luckily, a colleague had a copy of Fortran 90/95 for Scientists and Engineers, and I liked it enough to buy my own copy instead of borrowing his all the time. I find this book to be very helpful not only because of its concise and clear explanations of Fortran syntax and programming tips, but also because it explains how to understand code written for older versions of Fortran (don't worry, the author clearly labels the old constructs and warns against using any outdated methods). I would recommend this book to anyone interested in better understanding Fortran code in general. It is quite suitable for beginners, as well, with multiple examples and exercises (with answers available on the author's website). I give it only four stars for the simple reason that five stars implies perfection, and there's always room for improvement in any endeavor. By far the best Fortran reference I've found so far, though...

Chapman has written a good and comprehensive guide to Fortran. I had previously learnt Fortran 90, and needed to upgrade to Fortran 95. If you already know 90, the differences are kinda minor. 95 should not give you any problems.

Chapman also talks about higher level stuff. Like good coding techniques. So the book is about more than just at the syntax/subroutine level.