I learned Fortran IV and later Fortan 77 in the mid eighties and programmed professionally in Fortran 77 up until 2000. I was taught and programmed with fixed

I learned Fortran IV and later Fortan 77 in the mid eighties and programmed professionally in Fortran 77 up until 2000. I was taught and programmed with fixed format. I believe that there may have been compiler switches to allow non-fixed format. I'm pretty sure that longer lines were allowed via a compiler switch.