FPlus: a programming environment for scientific applications

A description is given of FPlus, a Fortran-based programming environment for engineers and scientists that lets them write code, test it immediately, incrementally develop applications, and generate documentation automatically. The incremental generation process is examined. FPlus testing facilities, which are available at any time during development and help to build in reliability, are discussed. Simple mechanisms that evaluate code and design to help improve programming style are provided. The FPlus environment also encourages uniformity with its structure-oriented editor and formatter. FPlus helps the user generate structured code and module and system documentation. It also provides a macro-definition facility for experienced programmers.<<ETX>>