Structured programming in some form is a standard topic in university introductory engineering courses, and FORTRAN remains a popular language for this instruction. This book is designed for use as a text in such courses. It combines an introduction to programming and an introduction to Fortran 90 with a broad selection of example programs and problems from a variety of engineering disciplines. Since the audience is not expected to be familiar with all these disciplines, the example programs are accompanied by explanatory material that assumes only minimal prior study of engineering. The example programs are introduced early in the text and used to illustrate the features of Fortran 90 as they are presented. While a text can only truly be tested in the classroom, this one certainly has all the features needed to be successful for its intended purposes.

The first chapter is a basic introduction to the ideas of computers and programming, using MS-DOS-based PCs as the paradigm system. Chapters 2 through 7 introduce Fortran 90, with the first engineering applications appearing in section 8 of chapter 3. Chapter 8 covers program testing and debugging, and chapter 9 covers numerical applications, including simulation and the discrete Fourier transform. Finally, chapter 10 deals with graphing data and design applications. There are two appendices on MS-DOS, a glossary, an index, and solutions to selected problems. Each chapter ends with a section containing exercises.

The programming component of introduction to engineering courses (for which this text is intended) rarely includes enough classroom time to give a book like this the instructor time it deserves. An important question to consider about such a text is then whether students are able to study the book on their own and are willing to do so. Regarding the first point, it is important for individual chapters, and even subsections, to be highly independent and self-contained; this book succeeds well in this respect. Regarding the second point, it is important for the book to draw students into its narrative core. The extremely elementary nature of the initial  sample  programs may have the opposite effect on some readers. Those who persevere should be able to teach themselves Fortran 90 from this book.