Flowmatic (1957) [pdf](archive.computerhistory.org)
archive.computerhistory.org
Flowmatic (1957) [pdf]
http://archive.computerhistory.org/resources/text/Remington_Rand/Univac.Flowmatic.1957.102646140.pdf
32 comments
From https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FLOW-MATIC :
FLOW-MATIC, originally known as B-0 (Business Language version 0), was the first English-like data processing language. It was developed for the UNIVAC I at Remington Rand under Grace Hopper during the period from 1955 until 1959. It had a strong influence on the development of COBOL.
FLOW-MATIC, originally known as B-0 (Business Language version 0), was the first English-like data processing language. It was developed for the UNIVAC I at Remington Rand under Grace Hopper during the period from 1955 until 1959. It had a strong influence on the development of COBOL.
Shame it's the brochure and not the manual. (The sample program is incomplete, missing data declarations --these were in a separate DIRECTORY section, but info on its syntax is ... scarce.)
If anyone is wondering, the UNIVAC scientific system pictured at the end was able to hold the impressive capacity of ~55 kB of RAM: http://archive.computerhistory.org/resources/text/Remington_...
12*1024 36-bits words, max, so exactly the same number of bits as in 54 kB. Clock frequency was 125kHz, it seems.
The drum stored 288MB.
Edit: under "Some Applications", the first item listed is "Missiles". That shows where the money was.
The drum stored 288MB.
Edit: under "Some Applications", the first item listed is "Missiles". That shows where the money was.
> The drum stored 288MB.
Where did you get that number? It seems awfully high for 1957.
Where did you get that number? It seems awfully high for 1957.
The text makes it clear that capacity of the drum was 16384 12 bit "words", 196608 bits in total. The use of core memory was a big advance at that time. Previously the drums had been the main memory for that generation of machines, with optimal placement of code on the drum being seen as a major programming skill.
> with optimal placement of code on the drum being seen as a major programming skill.
I remember reading an article/blog post from a programer of that time detailing how he optimized some code by taking into account the physics of the drum (such as mechanical inertia, angular momentum, etc.). I don't know how to locate it now but it was amazingly low-level.
I remember reading an article/blog post from a programer of that time detailing how he optimized some code by taking into account the physics of the drum (such as mechanical inertia, angular momentum, etc.). I don't know how to locate it now but it was amazingly low-level.
You may be thinking of the Story of Mel:
http://www.catb.org/jargon/html/story-of-mel.html
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Story_of_Mel
http://www.catb.org/jargon/html/story-of-mel.html
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Story_of_Mel
The words are 36 bits. 3 12 bit characters (the analogue to a byte)
12 "character" words of 36 bits.
Oops. I misread it as 16,384 groups of 4096 words each.
And yes, the result should have made me wonder.
And yes, the result should have made me wonder.
The drum stored 16384 36 bit words, equivalent to 72 * 1024 bytes (72 kb).
Imagine living back at this time, and seeing the advancement of computers. It's not hard to imagine that natural language programming and real artificial intelligence would not be far off. Science fiction of the period had entire economies planned and administered by computer.
Of course, that didn't happen, but it gets me thinking about what we imagine won't be far off from today. For myself, I imagine ubiquitous implanted health monitors and advanced computer/brain direct interfaces.
What do you imagine we will see "just around the corner"?
Of course, that didn't happen, but it gets me thinking about what we imagine won't be far off from today. For myself, I imagine ubiquitous implanted health monitors and advanced computer/brain direct interfaces.
What do you imagine we will see "just around the corner"?
Bret Victor has a wonderful talk (The future of programming), where he pretends to be in the 60's with all the research going on with Lisp, Algol, Fortran, and looking towards the future.
Needless to say, none of the positive predictions turned out as expected.
Needless to say, none of the positive predictions turned out as expected.
In case anybody is interested in that talk here's the notes and a link to the video: http://worrydream.com/dbx/
I wonder how many of these didn't work out because they didn't scale well to real world complexity.
The reasons are more to do with political interests and willingness to invest into specific technologies.
For example, do you think the whole Web 2.0 with JavaScript everywhere would ever taken off if it wasn't for companies with the engineering resources of Microsoft, Google, Apple and Mozilla into fighting for JIT performance?
Without it, JavaScript would still be used for form validations and dummy page animations.
Or Java on Android, with Google's goal of making it succeed whatever it takes.
It is all a matter how much money a company is willing to spend into making something become reality.
For example, do you think the whole Web 2.0 with JavaScript everywhere would ever taken off if it wasn't for companies with the engineering resources of Microsoft, Google, Apple and Mozilla into fighting for JIT performance?
Without it, JavaScript would still be used for form validations and dummy page animations.
Or Java on Android, with Google's goal of making it succeed whatever it takes.
It is all a matter how much money a company is willing to spend into making something become reality.
No, not really, at all. Natural language programming and strong A.I. are vastly different than the Node.js framework of the week. These things you mention, Javascript, Java, Android etc are like toys. You argue that the toy makers just as easily could have produced the equivalent of a Moon rocket program, if only they had spent money on that.
I am not convinced.
I am not convinced.
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I don't know if it's just me but I just find the graphic design here impressive. It's indistinguishable from modern/current design.
Really? It looks dated to me. The colors, the typefaces, and the illustrations are very "midcentury".
I have a strong feeling that people of a certain age (say, born in the 70s) associate this kind of design with oldness, while younger generations have had little to no contact with it except in retro inspired modern design.
So, paradoxically perhaps, the older you are the older this kind of design looks. I'm of the age where it reminds me of old magazines and ads and stuff, so I see where you're coming from. But, I've also noticed that this kind of design has seen a massive resurgence in many areas of design. Mid-century modern furniture, interior design, etc. is all the rage these days. Many very modern companies and projects (the already mentioned Atom project being an obvious one) are using these kinds of design elements. Atomic and space iconography, subdued warm solid colors, non-traditional quirky (but simple and still quite readable) typefaces, etc.
So, paradoxically perhaps, the older you are the older this kind of design looks. I'm of the age where it reminds me of old magazines and ads and stuff, so I see where you're coming from. But, I've also noticed that this kind of design has seen a massive resurgence in many areas of design. Mid-century modern furniture, interior design, etc. is all the rage these days. Many very modern companies and projects (the already mentioned Atom project being an obvious one) are using these kinds of design elements. Atomic and space iconography, subdued warm solid colors, non-traditional quirky (but simple and still quite readable) typefaces, etc.
I think that's it. The PDF clearly looks dated to me, but I think it's only some slight updates away from being something that could be produced today. (Different colors, clearer lines (which here probably is primarily limits of print and scan), slightly different fonts and typography)
Yes, I find it so midcentury I read it in a particular voice in my head.
Anyone who played Fallout should recognize the style. :)
Reminds me of the Atom 1.0 intro video :) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y7aEiVwBAdk