Object-Oriented Programming via Fortran 90/95 [Paperback]

Ed Akin (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0521524083 | ISBN-13: 978-0521524087 | Publication Date: January 13, 2003

Writing technical applications in a modern object-oriented approach, using Fortran 90 or 95, can be problematic. This book teaches how to employ the principles of object-oriented programming to produce clear, highly efficient executable codes (rather than focusing on the traditional procedural abilities of Fortran). This text is an excellent harbinger to all the features of the finalized, fully object-oriented Fortran 200X. In addition to covering the OOP methodologies, the basic foundation of the language and solid programming skills are reviewed, making the book valuable also as a good migration tool for experienced Fortran programmers that want to smoothly pick up the OOP paradigm. The author highlights common themes by using comparisons with Matlab® and C++ and uses numerous cross-referenced examples to convey all concepts quickly and clearly. Complete code for the examples is included on the book's web site.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"An excellent introduction to object-oriented programming.... Recommended." Choice

Book Description

Learn how to write technical applications in a modern object-oriented approach, using Fortran 90 or 95. This book will teach you how to stop focusing on the traditional procedural abilities of Fortran and to employ the principles of object-oriented programming to produce clear, highly efficient executable codes. In addition to covering the OOP methodologies the book also covers the basic foundation of the language and good programming skills. The author highlights common themes by using comparisons with Matlab and C++ and uses numerous cross-referenced examples to convey all concepts quickly and clearly. Complete code for the examples is included on the book's web site.

Product Details

• Paperback: 362 pages
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press (January 13, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0521524083
• ISBN-13: 978-0521524087
• Product Dimensions: 9.9 x 6.8 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,104,987 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #40 in Books > Computers & Technology > Programming > Languages & Tools > Fortran

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

21 of 22 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars This Book Breathes New Life Into Fortran, February 21, 2003

By 

TWJ "iminseattle" (Seattle, WA United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Object-Oriented Programming via Fortran 90/95 (Paperback)

This is a great book for any Fortran programmer (new and old). The author does a fantastic job of introducing OOP for Fortran 90/95. I had no idea that all kinds of neat OO concepts could be implemented in Fortran. I almost want to go back and rewrite my big FEA code using these concepts.

What I like most is that the author contrasts implementation details between Fortran, C++, and MATLAB to futher enrich the topics being discussed. Obviously, with this style, the author knows his audience (engineers and scientists).

I HIGHLY RECOMMEND THIS BOOK!

19 of 24 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Limited Usefulness, January 2, 2004

By 

Ronald S Davis (Canada) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Object-Oriented Programming via Fortran 90/95 (Paperback)

This book requires that the reader already knows about object-oriented programming. It gives little information on the subject. Instead, it gives details about how to use Fortran to implement those concepts. The details it gives will already be familiar to Fortran users, though not for that purpose. I was hoping for a book for the many scientists and engineers who have learned and used Fortran well, but who have not learned about object-oriented methods. This book isn't it. The only audience for which it is useful is the opposite: an experienced object-oriented programmer who wishes to switch from another language to Fortran.

The above occupies about a third of the book. Another third consists of elementary material that is not particularly relevant even to that audience, such as memory management, linked lists, and linear algebra. Object orientation is mentioned only peripherally in that material.

The last third consists of appendices that are mostly padding. There are language tables that are available in the manual with any compiler, and source code which repeats with variations examples in the main text.

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars book contains lots of resources, but its usefulness is limited, August 6, 2008

By 

Jasper Spaans (DELFT, Netherlands) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Object-Oriented Programming via Fortran 90/95 (Paperback)

This book is quite nice for the spoiled programmer who has been using a modern OO language such as C++ or python, and demonstrates methods to implement OO concepts as classes, overloading and polymorphism in Fortran 90/95 (F9X in the remainder of this review)

This however is also its main weakness: Even though F9X can be forced into these concepts, using those concepts, especially the proposed polymorphism method, is a tedious task, and makes a lot of the magic of OO programming disappear.

What is lacking in this book is an explicit overview of concepts which cannot be implemented easily in F9X, such as destructors, interfaces and inheritance, as that might be reason enough to forget about trying to implement your program in F9X.

My main conclusion after reading this is that trying to do OO in F9X is incomplete and way too much trouble, and thus the need for this book is rather limited.