[jonjacky]

You could do just that, but the usual way was to put a single "control card" that invoked the FORTRAN compiler before you own code. This invoked a compiler that was already stored in the system, on tape or disk.

The computer center had stacks of control cards for different functions like this - they were color coded - so you had to remember to get a pink card and put it before your program deck.

It was possible to punch a binary output deck of your compiied program or even store it on disk or tape - there were different control cards for that.