In Search of the Original Fortran Compiler

“In Search of the Original Fortran Compiler” appears in the April-June 2017 issue of IEEE Annals of the History of Computing. If that link doesn’t work, you can read my final submitted version here.

I wrote the article to chronicle the search I began in late 2003 to find the source code for the original FORTRAN compiler for the IBM 704. Much of the search was documented right here on this Dusty Decks blog, which I created in July 2004 as a sort of advertisement.

I’d like to thank Burt Grad for encouraging me to write the article. Burt is a friend who began working on computer software in 1954 and hasn’t stopped — for example, see here and here and here and here.