Last I checked, you had to write out your program on paper, using the special Fortran coding forms. Then you just gave the written out forms to someone who would type out your codes at a keypunch and give you a deck of freshly punched cards, or you could take care of it yourself.
For anyone who wants to experience the first part of this process, here is a FORTRAN Coding Form (in caps because that's how it was spelled back then):
Print that in color on 8½x14" (legal size) paper and get to work!
Of course there were a few other steps in the programming process back then.
1. A Systems Analyst took business requirements and turned them into an overview diagram of the system structure.
2. A Programmer took those diagrams and drew detailed flowcharts. These included every "if" statement, every loop, every detail. They were in effect code, but in a diagram form. Don't forget your IBM Flowcharting Template! https://ids.si.edu/ids/deliveryService?id=NMAH-AHB2012q05389
3. A Coder read the programmer's flowcharts and wrote out the equivalent FORTRAN code on multiple pages of Coding Forms.
4. A Keypunch Operator read the Coder's forms and punched them onto cards, one card for each line of a Coding Form.
5. Finally we get to the High Priest of this operation. A Computer Operator - the only person allowed to touch the Computer! - ran your deck of cards through the machine and blessed you with a printout. Which was usually a core dump.
I learned Fortran with punch cards and a teletype. We would hand a program deck (a stack of cards) to the machine operator and in a few minutes our printed output and the program deck would appear in an alphabetized set of bins. The physical stack of cards was the only storage medium for the code.
Check your debug output, modify (or insert) a few cards and repeat.
Don't forget the JCL (job control language) on the first card. That is how you tell the mainframe what resources your code needs and how to run it. If you get that wrong nothing happens.
We were taught to draw a diagonal line across the top edge of the deck of cards so you could quickly put the deck back together correctly if it was dropped.
I programmed FORTRAN on punch cards and on paper tape using a teletype, over an acoustically coupled modem, timesharing to a Univac 1103. Those were the days.
