IBM Flowcharting Template

11Jan2009

When I was a kid. An honest to goodness retired IBM engineer and his wife moved in across the street from me. He and his wife were very nice to me, giving me toys on my birthday and overpaying me to wash their car in the summer. The engineer, Fred, would sit in a chair in the yard and tell me stories about computers and other technologies.

One late summer day while drying their Cadillac, Fred told me they were moving to Florida. It was a sad day. I helped them pack boxes and throw stuff out for the next month. The day before they left Fred gave me a box full of things he thought I should have. Amongst them was a pocket knife (which I still have on my desk), a slide rule and this IBM flowcharting template. I never heard from them again until I was much older and I got a letter from his wife. Fred had died. I think he would be happy to know that I chose a career in computers and that his stories had something to do with my choice. Its kind of a cool looking package, so I thought I would share.

ibm-flowchart-template

Tags: Computers, Flowcharting, IBM, Retro Science, Scan, Template

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21 Responses to “IBM Flowcharting Template”

Brian
January 12th, 2009 at 9:06 am

Hey Retroist, this post shows up in my RSS feed, but not on the front page of the website.

That being said, that thing is NEAT. I have no idea what it is though. Something to do with old punch card computers?
Brian
January 12th, 2009 at 9:20 am

Nevermind, it is here now!
Metal Misfit
January 13th, 2009 at 6:32 pm

Touching story.

Nice piece of computer history, though I have no clue what it is. =P
The Retroist
January 13th, 2009 at 8:17 pm

I don’t think I meant this to be touching when I started writing it. Next time I will label it though.

“On a very special The Retroist. The Retroist learns a lesson about life, death and computers”.”
sachs
January 14th, 2009 at 4:56 pm

Maybe … the best story you will ever write. Retrotouching.
Stunt Double
January 14th, 2009 at 8:49 pm

That’s a great story. Any idea what kind of pocketknife he gave you?
Admin - Street Team Interviews
January 16th, 2009 at 5:36 pm

The first thing I thought was, “I had a template like that! Not IBM, but a flowcharting template nonetheless!” Then I read the story and was touched by it as well as nostalgic. Well done.
The Retroist
January 16th, 2009 at 9:30 pm

Thanks for the kind word about it being touching. The pocketknife is more of a pen knife. When I get the scanner up and working again this weekend I will make a scan.
Amardeep Sidhu
January 17th, 2009 at 10:01 pm

Really touching…sweet…
harmonicpies
January 18th, 2009 at 9:47 am

I am terribly jealous of your flowcharting template! I remember my dad had one of those, and I loved using it to draw pictures when he would take me to work with him on Saturdays. Now we just use Visio!

Thanks for the sweet story of your kind neighbors, too. I’m sure they enjoyed having you around as much as you enjoyed hearing their stories.
Puffin
January 19th, 2009 at 6:01 am

Yes – I had one of these and used it from 1967 onwards. I also still have an OLDER one which I used between 1963 and 1967.
metagirl
January 19th, 2009 at 2:40 pm

For those of you who are not familiar with Flowcharting Techniques, but would like to learn more, you may be interested in the Flowcharting Techniques manual from IBM: http://www.fh-jena.de/~kleine/history/software/IBM-FlowchartingTechniques-GC20-8152-1.pdf.

This is an updated edition from 1969, I believe the original C20-8152 manual was printed in 1964. If you can link to the PDF you’ll see that the manual includes information on how to use the Flowchart Template that the Retroist has brought to our attention.

And if you like this stuff, you may be interested in the following site: http://www.computerhistory.org/collections/accession/X957.88H.
The Retroist
January 19th, 2009 at 8:14 pm

Wow metagirl. Thank-you. I had never fully explored the origins of the flowchart along with the other pics. I love that their is still an updated version of the C20-8152 manual.
k4gdw
January 20th, 2009 at 8:11 am

I’m amazed that some folks didn’t know what this was. I had one of them which I used in classes as recently as the early 90’s. In COBOL I and COBOL II classes we were required to create a flowchart, by hand using the template since computer based flow chart tools didn’t yet exist, for every program assignment before we wrote a single line of code.
StewS
January 23rd, 2009 at 6:16 am

I had one of these templates (no handed down to me, so no sentimental value) and used it regularly in my job at DEC probably through 1989. Then I started drawing flow charts on my Mac and the template went in the trash. Now I use Visio for the same thing. The tool may change but the method is still important for some projects.
RC
January 24th, 2009 at 1:33 pm

I don’t really like Visio so maybe I should give your template a try.
UpNortDude
January 30th, 2009 at 11:56 am

I have 3 of these, and they’re part of my history too. I retired from Microsoft a year back, from a lifelong career in Computer Software.

This is a touching story!
Noons
February 12th, 2009 at 2:15 am

Not only do I have and use one of these, I laso have the HIPO variaety. Hands up anyone who can say what that means without looking it up!
Oleksandr Alesinskyy
February 26th, 2009 at 6:28 am

It’s funny but such templates do not originate from software development – I used to have one originated from 193x, my grandfather (chemist-engineer) have used it in his work. It was not blue but rose and manufactured in Soviet Union.
Dale
October 6th, 2009 at 7:06 pm

I also have a “forms ruler”. You know, it had the 132 printer column positions across the top. Real steel, too. ***sigh****
The Retroist
October 6th, 2009 at 9:48 pm

Dale … you got a pic?