f2c is the name of a program to convert

Transcompiler

A transcompiler is a special compiler that translates the source code of a programming language into the source code of another programming language, e.g...

 Fortran 77 to C

C (programming language)

C is a general-purpose computer programming language developed between 1969 and 1973 by Dennis Ritchie at the Bell Telephone Laboratories for use with the Unix operating system....

 code, developed at Bell Laboratories. The standalone f2c program was based on the core of the first complete Fortran 77 compiler

Compiler

A compiler is a computer program that transforms source code written in a programming language into another computer language...

 to be implemented, the "f77" program by Feldman and Weinberger. Because the f77 compiler was itself written in C and relied on a C compiler back end to complete its final compilation step, it and its derivatives like f2c were much more portable than compilers generating machine code

Machine code

Machine code or machine language is a system of impartible instructions executed directly by a computer's central processing unit. Each instruction performs a very specific task, typically either an operation on a unit of data Machine code or machine language is a system of impartible instructions...

 directly.

The f2c program was released as free software

Free software

Free software, software libre or libre software is software that can be used, studied, and modified without restriction, and which can be copied and redistributed in modified or unmodified form either without restriction, or with restrictions that only ensure that further recipients can also do...

 (open-source software

Open-source software

Open-source software is computer software that is available in source code form: the source code and certain other rights normally reserved for copyright holders are provided under a software license that permits users to study, change, improve and at times also to distribute the software.Open...

) and subsequently became one of the most common means to compile Fortran code on many systems where native Fortran compilers were unavailable or expensive. Several large Fortran libraries, such as LAPACK

LAPACK

-External links:* : a modern replacement for PLAPACK and ScaLAPACK* on Netlib.org* * * : a modern replacement for LAPACK that is MultiGPU ready* on Sourceforge.net* * optimized LAPACK for Solaris OS on SPARC/x86/x64 and Linux* * *...

, were made available as C libraries via conversion with f2c. The f2c program also influenced the development of the GNU g77 compiler

GNU Compiler Collection

The GNU Compiler Collection is a compiler system produced by the GNU Project supporting various programming languages. GCC is a key component of the GNU toolchain...

, which uses a modified version of the f2c runtime libraries.

See also

• BCX
  BCX
  BCX, a free software programming application written by Kevin Diggins, which translates BASIC source code to C/C++ source code, which can then be compiled using any of several Win32 C/C++ compilers. BCX is written in BCX BASIC, making it a self-translating translator...
  
   - translates BASIC source code to C
  C (programming language)
  C is a general-purpose computer programming language developed between 1969 and 1973 by Dennis Ritchie at the Bell Telephone Laboratories for use with the Unix operating system....
  
  /C++
  C++
  C++ is a statically typed, free-form, multi-paradigm, compiled, general-purpose programming language. It is regarded as an intermediate-level language, as it comprises a combination of both high-level and low-level language features. It was developed by Bjarne Stroustrup starting in 1979 at Bell...
  
  source code