Fortran and Unix for Physics and Astronomy

Fortran Exercises

[Please also look at the Suggested Schedule]

The exercises are distributed as Adobe PDF files. To view them you need to have a "reader" program such as the Adobe Acrobat Reader. (The exercise files are also available here as PostScript files.)


List of Exercises

[01] [02] [03] [04] [05] [06] [07] [08] [09] [10] [11] [12] [13] [14] [15] [16] | [17] [18]

Lesson 01 - Getting Started: How to Login to the Computer
How to log in to the computer from the console, or remotely from Windows, Apple, or Unix computers.
 
  • How to choose a "bad" password
  • Download PuTTY, a free Win32 SSH client
  • Sample configuration files:
         sample.login, sample.cshrc, sample.emacs, sample.logout

    • Lesson 02 - How to send E-Mail in Unix
    How to send e-mail on a Unix computer using Berkeley mail or Pine.
     
  • Sample configuration files:
         sample.mailrc, sample.pinerc
  • Configuring Pine, Netscape, or Eudora for reading IMAP e-mail
  • Download Pine for Windows and Unix
  • Download Pine for Mac OS X

    • Lesson 03 - Compiling a FORTRAN program: the "Hello World" program
    Using the compiler to create and run the simplest Fortran program.
     
  • How to get help in Unix.
  • Learning the UNIX Operating System
      by Grace Todino, John Strang, and Jerry Peek

    • Lesson 04 - Editing with the Emacs Editor
    How to use the emacs text editor to create and edit programs and other files.
     
  • A sample Fortran program: avgvar.f
  • Introduction to the Emacs Editor
  • A summary of the most useful emacs keys.
  • A reference card for emacs (A more complete summary).
  • A sample .emacs file. (Copy this to your home directory.)

    • Lesson 05 - The "assignment" statement - Aircraft Weight and Balance
    Writing your first program 'from scratch'.
     
  • Fugu - a Secure Shell copy client for the Mac
  • SSH Secure Shell Client for Windows XC
  • The first computer "bug", (found 9 Sept. 1945 in the Mark II Aiken Relay Calculator at Harvard)

    • Lesson 06 - Conditional Execution - the IF Statement
    How a program can make decisions and select between choices.
    Directories and subdirectories in Unix.

    Lesson 07 - Iteration -- the DO Loop
    How to repeat the same part of a program a given number of times.
    Compiling and debugging with emacs

    Lesson 08 - The REAL DO Loop
    Repeating steps using REAL variables to approximate continuous motion.
    How to put a file on the World Wide Web.

    Lesson 09 - Nested DO Loops
    Repeatedly repeating - putting loops inside of loops inside of loops...
    How to format a simple web page using HTML.
     
  • A Beginner's Guide to HTML (from NCSA, home of Mosaic)
  • HTML 3.2 Reference Specification
    •  
  • HTML makes it to the comics
  • Student web pages:
         thfondak, bekluewer, perobinson, kilefkowitz maalmeida edbinka

    • Lesson 10 - Building A Better Bomb Code - the Flour Bomb program
    Simulating an object dropped from an airplane with air resistance.
    (This is the mid-term project.)

    Lesson 11 - The Bubble Sort
    The simplest method of sorting a list of numbers.
    Reading from and writing to files.
    Compiler options
    Unix command aliases
     
  • GNU Fortran compiler command line options

    • Lesson 12 - The Selection Sort
    A more efficient method of sorting a list of numbers.
    Algorithms and operation counts.

    Lesson 13 - Sorting with Heapsort
    The most efficient method of sorting a list of numbers.
    Introduction to Numerical Recipes
    Using the Revision Control System (RCS).
     
  • The heapsort subroutine - heapsort.f
  • A Quick Introduction to RCS (the Revision Control System)

    • Lesson 14 - Functions and COMMON blocks
    Putting common operations into function subprograms.
    Global common storage.
    Numerical simulation with cross-checks
    Introduction to the X11 windowing system
     
  • A Tutorial Intruduction the the X Window System"
  • Download X11 for MacOS X (10.3)
  • Download Cygwin/X for Windows
  • XFree86 Project
  • The X Windowing System

    • Lesson 15 - System Libraries and Computer Graphics
    Simple computer graphics
    Using system libraries.
    Application Programmer Interfaces (API's)
     
  • Simple curve plotting using VOGL - curve.f
         (You will also need CVstate.f, fvogl.h, and fvodevice.h.)
  • Sample .xinitrc file.
  • Sample .twmrc file.
  • Sample .Xdefaults file.

    • Lesson 16 - Oh Say Can You C?
    Compiling and running programs written in C
     

    Optional Exercises - Still under development

    Lesson 17 - Recursion
    Using functions that are called by themselves
    Calling C functions from a Fortran program

    Lesson 18 - Computer Graphics with OpenGL and GLUT
    Using the OpenGL graphics library, with the GL Utilities Toolkit (GLUT)
     

        Copyright © 1997, 1998, 1999, 2003 by Eric Myers