Self-Assessment Quiz: Why Fortran?

Twenty quick questions to confirm you absorbed the chapter's argument before moving on. Aim for 16 or more. Answers and a topic map are at the end — try the whole quiz first.

Question 1

In what year was the first FORTRAN system released? - A. 1949 - B. 1957 - C. 1966 - D. 1978

Question 2

The name "FORTRAN" is a contraction of: - A. "Formula Translation" - B. "Formal Transmission" - C. "Format Transfer" - D. "Forward Transaction"

Question 3

Which standard is generally regarded as the modernization of the language — introducing free-form source, array operations, modules, and dynamic memory? - A. FORTRAN 66 - B. FORTRAN 77 - C. Fortran 90 - D. Fortran 2018

Question 4

Which Fortran standard first added coarrays, the language's built-in parallel programming model? - A. Fortran 95 - B. Fortran 2003 - C. Fortran 2008 - D. Fortran 2023

Question 5

The chapter names two design decisions behind Fortran's numerical speed. They are: - A. Garbage collection and just-in-time compilation - B. First-class arrays and the assumption that procedure arguments do not alias - C. Dynamic typing and reference counting - D. Fixed-form source and implicit typing

Question 6

"Pointer aliasing" refers to: - A. Two names referring to the same region of memory - B. A pointer that has not been initialized - C. Renaming a variable with an alias directive - D. A type mismatch between two pointers

Question 7

The C keyword restrict exists because: - A. C needed a way to make pointers read-only - B. C programmers wanted shorter code - C. C needed a way to promise the compiler what Fortran guarantees by default — that pointers do not alias - D. It restricts which functions can access a variable

Question 8

Which of these libraries — the foundation of numerical linear algebra used under NumPy, MATLAB, and R — is written in Fortran? - A. TensorFlow - B. LAPACK / BLAS - C. SQLite - D. OpenSSL

Question 9

True or false: "Every machine in the TOP500 runs its operating system in Fortran."

Question 10

The most defensible version of Fortran's supercomputing claim is: - A. Fortran runs the operating system of every supercomputer - B. All supercomputer software is written in Fortran - C. A large share of the scientific application cycles on top supercomputers is spent in Fortran code - D. Supercomputers can only run Fortran

Question 11

Whole-array operations (like a = b + c on entire arrays) help performance mainly because: - A. They use less memory - B. They hand the compiler the structure it needs to vectorize and parallelize - C. They are always executed on the GPU - D. They avoid floating-point arithmetic

Question 12

Which is not one of the reasons the chapter gives for Fortran's persistence? - A. Raw speed for numerical computation - B. An enormous base of validated legacy code - C. Its popularity for web and mobile development - D. A close fit to the numerical-computing domain

Question 13

The "dead language" reputation comes partly from: - A. Fortran having no standard - B. The long 1978–1991 stagnation and most people only ever seeing FORTRAN 77 - C. Fortran being removed from all compilers - D. A lack of any scientific applications

Question 14

In modern Fortran, the modern replacement for the FORTRAN 77 COMMON block is: - A. A GOTO statement - B. A module - C. An EQUIVALENCE statement - D. A pointer

Question 15

Which task is Fortran least well suited for? - A. A large finite-difference fluid simulation - B. A dense linear-algebra solver - C. A mobile phone app - D. A climate model

Question 16

The progressive project you will build across this book is: - A. A web server - B. A 2D heat-equation solver - C. A compiler - D. A database engine

Question 17

True or false: "According to the book's honesty policy, every program in the text was executed and its real output pasted in."

Question 18

"Modern Fortran is a modern language" is supported by which feature set? - A. Modules, derived types, object orientation, allocatable arrays, coarrays - B. Punch cards, fixed columns, implicit typing - C. Manual memory addressing only - D. No support for functions

Question 19

A colleague argues a validated 100,000-line FORTRAN 77 code should be rewritten from scratch in a trendy language. The chapter's ethic suggests you should first consider: - A. Deleting it - B. Modernizing/refactoring it incrementally to preserve the validated science - C. Ignoring it - D. Rewriting it over a weekend

Question 20

The baseline Fortran standard this book teaches to is: - A. FORTRAN 77 - B. Fortran 95 - C. Fortran 2018 - D. Fortran 2003

Answer Key

Topics to review by question

• Q1–4 → §1.1 (the timeline and the two eras).
• Q5–7, 11 → §1.3 (arrays and the no-aliasing advantage).
• Q8–10 → §1.2 (where Fortran runs; the honest TOP500 claim).
• Q12–15, 19 → §1.4 and §1.5 (why it persists; the myth; the honest limits).
• Q16–18, 20 → §1.6 and the Project Checkpoint (how the book works; the baseline standard).

Scored below 16? Reread the sections flagged above before Chapter 2 — this chapter's framing carries through the whole book.