FLOW-MATIC

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FLOW-MATIC (originally B-0 ) was the first computer language , the instructions used to the English language were similar. It was designed in 1955 by Grace Hopper in the service of Remington Rand for the UNIVAC I from Remington Rand. The compiler and documentation were then generally available for a number of years and were mainly used for programming commercial tasks.

There were around thirty commands and instructions from everyday English (e.g. COMPARE, DIVIDE, IF GREATER, OTHERWISE). Other special features were data to which natural names (e.g. PRICE or PRICE UNIT) could be assigned for the first time, and the separation of data part and procedural part in the program.

FLOW-MATIC predecessors were A-0 , ARITH-MATIC , MATH-MATIC , which also came from Grace Hopper.

It was Grace Hopper's idea that computers could be programmed with instructions similar to natural language, instead of using machine code or mnemonic assembly language as was common at the time . FLOW-MATIC and the ideas of Grace Hopper were the basis for the later development of COBOL .

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