Fortran The Fortran Automatic Coding System for the IBM 704 (15 October 1956), the first Programmer's Reference Manual for Fortran Paradigm(s) multi-paradigm : structured , imperative ( procedural , object-oriented ), generic Appeared in 1957 Designed by John Backus Developer John Backus & IBM Stable release Fortran 2008 (ISO/IEC 1539-1:2010) (2010)