UNIVAC
DATA
AUTOMATION

UNIVAC 21

FLOW-MATIC GAMING SYSTEM • CIRCA 1957

POWER
COMPUTE
READY
1
9
5
7

♠ TWENTY-ONE ♥

Beat the Dealer • Powered by FLOW-MATIC

Dealer
?
Player
? ?
0
Press DEAL to Start
* UNIVAC 21 - FLOW-MATIC CARD GAME
* Written for UNIVAC I/II (1957)
* Grace Hopper's Business Language
 
(0) INPUT DECK FILE-A ; OUTPUT PLAYER FILE-B .
 
(1) MOVE 0 TO PLAYER-TOTAL (B) .
(2) READ-ITEM A ; DEAL CARD TO PLAYER .
 
* AWAITING OPERATOR INPUT...

About FLOW-MATIC

FLOW-MATIC was the first English-like programming language, developed by Grace Hopper and her team at Remington Rand from 1955-1959.

  • Ran on UNIVAC I and UNIVAC II
  • Direct ancestor of COBOL
  • First to use English words as code
  • Proved computers could understand natural syntax

Features COBOL Killed

FLOW-MATIC had revolutionary features that COBOL dropped:

  • SET OPERATION - Runtime flow modification
  • X-I Sections - Inline machine code
  • EXECUTE - Subroutine mechanism
  • Single-letter aliases - Concise file refs
  • Block integrity - Built-in validation

The Ian Index

This page is part of The Ian Index - a comprehensive archive preserving computing history and documenting the "forgetting cycle" where innovations are lost and later reinvented.

  • Original documentation preserved
  • Working implementations
  • Historical analysis
  • Named after Ian, who believed in remembering

More FLOW-MATIC Projects Coming Soon

We're actively expanding the FLOW-MATIC implementation with more examples, features, and historical recreations. The archive grows weekly.

In Progress

Payroll System

Full payroll processing with overtime calculations

In Progress

Inventory Management

Multi-file inventory reorder system

Researching

X-I Machine Code

Inline assembly sections implementation

Archiving

Historical Docs

More U1518 manual sections being processed