Well, I can tell you from personal experience that there are a lot of people who are only studying programming because they think it's a ticket to a well paying job.
Good for you for doing it for the love of the subject.
When I started my studies, a PC as we know it today was just a dream. We used DEC VAX minicomputers, OS was VMS and languages we used Cobol and Fortran.
In those days, late 70's and early 80's, the programming was taught in Finland using a so called pseudo language. First, before coding on computer, those dumb terminals we had, we did a pseudo code with pen and paper. The idea was simple, to write your code using a language mixed with instructions and commands from Cobol, and plain English. Afterwards it was surprisingly easy to transfer this pseudo code to correct Cobol, or Fortran.
A simple example: You need to write a short program that asks user's name, and prints then "Hello <NAME>". First you take a block of paper, a pen and
beer coffee, sit down and write the pseudo code:
Code:
PRINT "What is your first name?"
INPUT firstname$
PRINT "What is your last name?"
INPUT lastname$
name$ = firstname$ + " " + lastname$
IF firstname$ = "Barak" AND lastname$ = "Obama"
PRINT "Hello, Mr. President!"
ELSE
PRINT "Hello, " name$
END
Now, just sit in front of your computer and simply translate the above pseudo code to correct Fortran, compile it and that's it.
This method works extremely well with languages like Cobol and Fortran which have quite straight forward sets of instructions. I wholeheartedly recommend you to try when planning and coding your first Fortran apps. It's especially good method to see and plan which variables you are going to need.
I like old languages, I still have my Pascal, Lisp, Fortran and Cobol books and reference guides. If you are looking for a solution, how to do something in Fortran, you are most certainly welcome to ask. I believe I am not alone here, we old geeks would be happy to point you to the right direction if need arises.
Happy Coding!
Life is good, Mac OSX sux!
Kari