FORMAC

{{Short description|Computer algebra system based on FORTRAN}}

{{About|the computer algebra system|other uses|Formac (disambiguation)}}

FORMAC, the FORmula MAnipulation Compiler, was the first computer algebra system to have significant use.{{cite book |first=Jean E. |last=Sammet |chapter=The beginning and development of FORMAC (FORmula MAnipulation Compiler) |title=Proceedings of HOPL-II, The second ACM SIGPLAN conference on History of programming languages |pages=209–230 |year=1993 |isbn=0-89791-570-4 |doi=10.1145/154766.155372 }}

It was developed by Jean E. Sammet and her team, as an extension of FORTRAN IV. The compiler was implemented as a preprocessor{{More detail needed}} taking the FORMAC program and converting it to a FORTRAN IV program which was in turn compiled without further user intervention.

Initial development started in 1962 and was complete by April 1964. In November it was released to IBM customers.

FORMAC supported computation, manipulation, and use of symbolic expressions.{{cite book|first=Jean E.|last=Sammet|year=1969|title=Programming Languages: History and Fundamentals|location=Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey|publisher=Prentice Hall|isbn=0-13-729988-5}} In addition it supported rational arithmetic.