What is it about?
Many people think of Fortran as an ancient programming language, but the reality is that it has been continuously updated for over 60 years and remains a powerhouse for high-performance science and engineering. While the language itself is modern and fast, its surrounding ecosystem—the tools, libraries, and community—had fallen behind the times. It lacked features that programmers in other languages take for granted, like a standard library of common functions and an easy-to-use package manager for building projects. This paper describes the work of fortran-lang, a new, vibrant open-source community that has come together to build these missing pieces. We've created a modern standard library (stdlib) to stop programmers from constantly reinventing the wheel, a user-friendly package manager (fpm) to simplify building code, and a central online hub to bring the global community together and make programming in Fortran easier and more productive.
Featured Image
Photo by Lorenzo Herrera on Unsplash
Why is it important?
This work is revitalizing Fortran and ensuring its future relevance. Modern tools like our package manager (fpm) drastically lower the barrier to entry for students and new programmers, allowing them to focus on solving scientific problems instead of wrestling with complex build systems. A standard library (stdlib) boosts productivity for everyone. A new compiler (LFortran) also lowers the barrier of entry significantly. By creating a modern, welcoming ecosystem, we are attracting a new generation of users and developers. This ensures that the decades of investment in critical Fortran codebases—used in everything from weather forecasting to computational physics—will not be lost. It keeps the original high-performance scientific language competitive and thriving in the 21st century.
Perspectives
My journey with Fortran started like many others—as a PhD student who needed its raw performance for my research. I saw its power but also the frustrating gap between its computational engine and the productive ecosystems of languages like Python. It's why I eventually became the maintainer for f2py in NumPy, the critical bridge connecting those two worlds. But I realized that bridges aren't enough; the Fortran side needed its own modern infrastructure. That’s what drew me to fortran-lang. I went from being a user to a builder, contributing to the internals of new tools like the lfortran compiler. The community isn't just a discussion forum; it's a workshop where users, maintainers, and compiler developers are rolling up their sleeves together. We're building the tools we all wished we had when we started, ensuring the next generation of scientists doesn't have to choose between performance and a modern development experience.
Rohit Goswami
University of Iceland
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: The State of Fortran, Computing in Science & Engineering, March 2022, Institute of Electrical & Electronics Engineers (IEEE),
DOI: 10.1109/mcse.2022.3159862.
You can read the full text:
Contributors
The following have contributed to this page
