Language portability — FORTRAN across platforms: Which statement is NOT true about the FORTRAN programming language and its portability/use?

Introduction / Context:
High level languages aim to deliver portability across hardware platforms. FORTRAN, one of the oldest high level languages, remains heavily used in scientific and engineering computing. The question probes your understanding of what portability means in practice.

Given Data / Assumptions:

• FORTRAN is standardized (e.g., FORTRAN 77, Fortran 90, and later), enabling cross platform compilers.
• Platform differences may require minor changes (I O, libraries), but core language constructs are portable.
• IBM PC and Sun systems have different architectures and operating systems.

Concept / Approach:

Because FORTRAN is standardized, source code conforming to the standard is largely portable; it is not “totally different” across platforms. Therefore, the statement asserting total difference is not true. The correct choice is the false assertion. The other statements—FORTRAN is high level and widely used in scientific computing—are true.

Step-by-Step Solution:

Verification / Alternative check:

Real world scientific codes routinely compile across Linux, Windows, and UNIX variants with minimal conditional changes, confirming portability.

Why Other Options Are Wrong:

• (a) True: FORTRAN is a high level language.
• (c) True: It is heavily used in numerical/scientific computing.
• (d) All of the above cannot be correct because (a) and (c) are true.
• (e) None of the above is wrong because one statement is indeed not true.

Common Pitfalls:

Confusing platform specific I O or compiler pragmas with the core language; such differences do not make programs “totally different.”

Final Answer:

A FORTRAN program, written for the IBM-PC, is totally different from a FORTRAN program written for execution on the SUN machine