Replying to LO30268 --
Dear Organlearners,
Fred Nickols <nickols@safe-t.net> wrote:
>What is the basis for saying that software folks invented
>flowcharts? It seems to me they were used by industrial
>engineers long before there were any software folks.
Greetings dear Fred,
You are (perhaps? see below) correct. I encountered them for the first
time in a course on chemical technology in 1964. I had to draw flowcharts
of several industrial processes. In those days main frame computers were
just becoming the in thing -- big hulks!
But i wonder who invented flowcharts. I remember having read an old
history book a long time ago -- the details i do not remember any more.
The author made use of chronological flowcharts. Were it the historians
who invented them?
Spreadsheets, eventhough primitive, date back to ancient Mesopotamia. I
think of spreedsheets as detailed accounts of "being". Thus thinking of of
flowcharts as detailed accounts of "becoming", how far do they date back?
This would give me an indication when a general awareness to "becoming"
emerged. I did several searches with Google on the web, but i am not
better off afterwards.
With care and best wishes
--At de Lange <amdelange@postino.up.ac.za> Snailmail: A M de Lange Gold Fields Computer Centre Faculty of Science - University of Pretoria Pretoria 0001 - Rep of South Africa
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