The document provides an overview of the FORTRAN programming language. It discusses the history and origins of FORTRAN as one of the oldest programming languages developed in 1957. Key features of FORTRAN include being machine independent, having a natural way to express mathematical functions, and efficient execution for number crunching applications in science and engineering. The document also demonstrates the basic structure of a FORTRAN program with declarations, execution, and termination sections. It shows a simple example program that reads input, performs a calculation, and outputs the result.