Programming and Control

Programming and Control Earliest flow control commands were applied to human operators: “… the mathematician … chooses the numerical method … such functional, value and control tapes as are required are then computed, coded and punched. Since the mathematician cannot always be present while the calculator is running, instructions must be prepared to guide the operating staff.”

On ENIAC, “A particular configuration was called a “set-up” and documented in a diagram showing the wiring patterns and switch settings needed on each unit.”

 Indeed, the methods used to plan computations for auto- matic computers often incorporated those used with earlier technologies, whether in the application of punched card machines or desk calculators to large-scale mathematical work or the analysis of printed forms and clerical procedures in the of ce.

On EDVAC (von Neuman’s proposed successor to ENIAC) The program is written as a single sequence of instructions, known as “orders” in the First Draft, which are stored in numbered memory locations along with data. These instructions control all aspects of the machine’s operations. The same mechanisms are used to read code and data.

Von Neumann’s design melded facilities for arithmetic and control.

(I could argue that this was a key moment for Technicity, when a system was designed allowing the automatic application of attitudes usually applied to numbers numbers, as purely instrumental abstractions, were applied to people. ) An Algol program had no association with a particular computer and, after Commu- nications standardized on the language for its “Algorithms” department, was often intended primarily to be read by humans rather than executed by ma- chines.

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