GOTRAN(ID:3074/got001)

GOTRAN was used by academic institutions during the 1960s and 1970s for a
variety of reasons.

We used it because it was an easy language for students to learn programming
compared to the existing lanuages at that time.

Other institutions used it because they did not have access to a time sharing
mini computer with the BASIC interpreter.

Still other used GOTRAN because you could process many SMALL student oriented
programs without going thru a time consuming compilation as with the 1620
Fortran system.

Anyway, GOTRAN  was a fun language for beginners to
program.  Listed below are some GOTRAN references that were available to our students
at that time:

  
1. 1620 GOTRAN Interpretive Programming System, Reference Manual, C26-5594,
     IBM
     
2. Beginning Fortran, Simplified 12 - Statement Programming, Maniotes, J.,
     Higley, H. B., & Haag, J., N., Hayden Book Co., New York, 1971
     
3. Computer Programming and Related Mathematics,  Andree, R. V., John
     Wiley & Sons, New York, 1967.

The GOTRAN interpreter came either on paper tape or punched cards. 
Later a disk version came out which ran under the Monitor I OS.

Appendix B of reference (2) describes the operating procedure for:

  
1. GOTRAN for a card oriented 1620 system
     
2. GOTAFIT for a disk oriented 1620 system

Appendix G of reference (2), contains 2 translator
programs that were used to convert GOTRAN source programs to either Fortran II or Fortran IV
programs, respectively.