FLOW-MATIC

FLOW-MATIC, Originally B-0, and possibly the first English-like Data Processing language. It was invented and specified by Grace Hopper, and development of the commercial variant started at Remington Rand in 1955 for the UNIVAC I. By 1958, the compiler and its documentation were generally available and being used commercially.

Flow-matic was a major influence in the design of COBOL.

References

PROGRAMMING LANGUAGES: History and Fundamentals, Sammet 1969, pp. 316-324.

This article (or an earlier version of it) contains material from FOLDOC, used with permission.