The steady laminar boundary layer flow along a vertical stationary isothermal plate is studied taking into account the viscous dissipation and pressure stress work of the fluid. The results are obtained with the direct numerical solution of the boundary layer equations without any approximation. It was found that the variation of wall heat transfer and wall shear stress along the plate is quite different compared to that given by the approximate perturbation method. (C) 2003 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.