Some pages from the first Fortran manual, the IBM manual for the 704, are shown. First, for those who think that Fortran was originally spelled with all capitals, there is the cover page [Note: all caps are used frequently inside the manual, often with all but the first "F" in small caps.] Next, is the title page, which features an autograph by John Backus himself and the names of the people who worked on the first Fortran compiler. Finally, there is a small sample program (trivia quiz: which statement in the program is not legal Fortran 90/95?) and a list of all the statements in the language (the list is about the same length as the list of statements in F).
The manual was reproduced for Pioneer Days honoring the IBM team at at a computer conference in 1982 (25 years after the delivery of the first compiler).
