FLOW-MATIC known as B-0, was the first English-like data processing language. It was developed for the UNIVAC I at Remington Rand under Grace Hopper from 1955 to 1959, helped shape the development of COBOL. Hopper had found that business data processing customers were uncomfortable with mathematical notation: I used to be a mathematics professor. At that time I found. I was charged with the job of making it easy for businessmen to use our computers. I found it was not a question of whether they could learn mathematics or not, but whether they would, they said, ‘Throw those symbols out — I do not know what they mean, I have not time to learn symbols.’ I suggest a reply to those who would like data processing people to use mathematical symbols that they make them first attempt to teach those symbols to vice-presidents or a colonel or admiral. I assure you. In late 1953, she proposed that data processing problems should be expressed using English keywords, but Rand management considered the idea infeasible.

In early 1955, she and her team wrote a specification for such a programming language and implemented a prototype. The FLOW-MATIC compiler became publicly available in early 1958 and was complete in 1959. FLOW-MATIC was the first programming language to express operations using English-like statements, it was the first system to distinctly separate the description of data from the operations on it. Its data definition language, unlike its executable statements, was not English-like. FLOW-MATIC and its direct descendant AIMACO shaped COBOL, which incorporated several of its elements: Defining Input & Output Files and printed output in advance, separated into INPUT files, OUTPUT files and High Speed Printer outputs. INPUT <FILE-NAME> <FILE-LETTER>. Qualification of data-names. IF END OF DATA clause on file READ operations. Figurative constant ZERO. Dividing the program into sections, separating different parts of the program. Flow-Matic sections included Computer and Compiler. A sample FLOW-MATIC program: INPUT INVENTORY FILE-A PRICE FILE-B.

COMPARE PRODUCT-NO WITH PRODUCT-NO. TRANSFER A TO D. WRITE-ITEM D. JUMP TO OPERATION 8. TRANSFER A TO C. MOVE UNIT-PRICE TO UNIT-PRICE. WRITE-ITEM C. READ-ITEM A. JUMP TO OPERATION 1. READ-ITEM B. JUMP TO OPERATION 1. SET OPERATION 9 TO GO TO OPERATION 2. JUMP TO OPERATION 2. TEST PRODUCT-NO AGAINST. REWIND B. CLOSE-OUT FILES C. Sample Notes Note that this sample includes only the executable statements of the program, the COMPILER section; the record fields PRODUCT-NO and UNIT-PRICE would have been defined in the DIRECTORY section, which did not use English-like syntax. Files are referred to by the letter at the end of the FILE-LETTER. Example: FILE-A is referred to just by A and is for ease of reference in following code. Operations are numbered in an unbroken sequence from 0..n and are performed in that order unless a statement to the contrary is reached/made. The highest numbered operation is the one. A much more detailed overview of FLOW-MATIC is available in the manual entitled, FLOW-MATIC PROGRAMMING SYSTEM Hopper, Grace.

Keynote Address, History of Programming Languages I. ACM. pp. 16–20. ISBN 0-12-745040-8 Hopper, Grace. “Automatic programming: Present status and future trends”, Mechanisation of Thought Processes, National Physical Laboratory Symposium 10. Her Majesty's Stationery Office. Pp 155–200, cited in Knuth, Donald; the Early Development of Programming Languages. Computer Science Department, School of Humanities and Sciences, Stanford University. Retrieved 2016-03-19. Sammet, Jean. Programming Languages: History and Fundamentals. Prentice-Hall. P. 316–324. ISBN 0-13-729988-5 Sammet, Jean. "The Early History of COBOL", History of Programming Languages I. ACM. pp. 199–243. ISBN 0-12-745040-8 Sperry Rand Corporation Introducing a New Language for Automatic Programming: Univac Flow-Matic Remington Rand Univac a Division of Sperry Rand Corporation. FLOW-MATIC PROGRAMMING SYSTEMFLOW-MATIC_Programming_System_1958.pdfThis article is based on material taken from the Free On-line Dictionary of Computing prior to 1 November 2008 and incorporated under the "relicensing" terms of the GFDL, version 1.3 or later

Christopher Calvin Harris from Truro, nicknamed Bomber, is a Great Britain international speedway rider for the Peterborough Panthers and Birmingham Brummies in the United Kingdom. Chris Harris began his racing career at the age of six and a half by competing in grasstrack events, his talent became apparent when he began to win all of the junior age groups in the South-West area. In 1998, aged 15, he turned to speedway racing for the St. Austell Gulls at Amateur Conference League level; the Gulls won the Knockout Cup. On his 16th birthday, Harris signed for the Exeter Falcons, who competed in the Premier League, the middle tier of British speedway's three-league structure. Despite the death of his father, his driver and mentor, he achieved his first notable individual success that year, when he became Great Britain Under-16 Champion, he was selected to ride for Great Britain at both Under-19 and Under-21 level. In 2000, Harris more than doubled his previous year’s points total, being unbeaten by an opponent in several matches.

The Exeter Falcons team finished the season as Premier League Champions and reached two cup finals and one semi-final. Harris moved clubs for the 2001 season, he soon became their top scorer and qualified for the 2001 Individual Speedway Junior World Championship as first reserve. He continued his form into 2002. Once again, he was top scorer for the club and under his captaincy Trelawny Tigers won the Premier Trophy. Taking advantage of new rules introduced to assist young British riders, Harris took the step up to ride in the Elite League in 2002, with the Peterborough Panthers, he progressed well during his debut Elite League season. Individually, he progressed to the final of the British Speedway Championship and finished fourth in the World Under-21 Championship. In 2003, Harris rode again for Trelawny Tigers in the Premier League and Peterborough Panthers in the Elite League. By the end of the season, he was an Elite League heat-leader. Off track, he was voted BBC South-West Sports Personality of the Year.

However, it was on the individual front. In the World Under-21 Championship, he won both his quarter and semi final rounds, progressing to the 2003 Individual Speedway Junior World Championship in Sweden where he finished runner-up, one point behind Jarosław Hampel, his form during 2003 won Harris an invitation to take part as a reserve in the third round of the 2003 FIM Individual Speedway World Championship, the British Grand Prix, held at Millennium Stadium in Cardiff. 2004 saw Harris sign for the Coventry Bees. The following season, the Bees won the Elite League Championship, which meant Harris had won titles at all three levels of British speedway aged just twenty-two, he represented Great Britain in the Speedway World Cup. For the 2011 season, Harris moved on loan from Coventry to Belle Vue only to return a season later. In 2007 Harris became British Champion. Harris was selected to ride as a permanent wild card in the 2007 Speedway Grand Prix series, riding at number 15. In only his fifth full Grand Prix meeting he won the British Grand Prix at Cardiff.

He was a victim of an armed robbery, just two weeks before his maiden Grand Prix win when he was held up at gunpoint whilst out with his manager. Winning the Grand Prix was considered to be the biggest event to happen in British Speedway for several years. Off track, he was again voted BBC South-West Sports Personality of the Year. and was voted BBC Midlands Sports Personality of the Year, beating Aston Villa footballer Gareth Barry into second place. Wrocław - 3rd place Cardiff - 1st place Copenhagen - 3rd place Gorican - 2nd place Terenzano - 2nd place Bydgoszcz - 2nd place Goričan - 2nd Warsaw - 2nd place Copenhagen List of Speedway Grand Prix riders 2017 - 5 apps 50pts 2018 - 5 apps 52pts 2019 - 5 apps 50pts La Reole Third 2019 2018 - Morizes 16/46pts Second 2019 - Vechta 14/41pts Fourth 2016 Folkestone 8pts Chris Harris Official Website Coventry Motor Speedway Website

SDI-12 is an asynchronous serial communications protocol for intelligent sensors that monitor environment data. These instruments are low-power, are used at remote locations, communicate with a data logger or other data acquisition device; the protocol follows a master-slave configuration whereby a data logger requests data from the intelligent sensors, each identified with a unique address. The first version of SDI-12 was released in 1988, it was designed by a coalition which included the U. S. Geological Survey's a group of private companies; the SDI-12 Specification is maintained by a non-profit corporation called the SDI-12 Support Group. The most recent upgrade was made in May, 2017. Version 1.4 of SDI-12 defines: High volume commands which allow up to 999 parameters to be returned from a sensor. Metadata Commands which provide meta data information about the measurement, such as the parameter name and units. Version 1.3 of SDI-12 defines: Electrical interface characteristics such as number of conductors, voltage logic levels and transitions, line impedance.

Communications protocol such as means of establishing contact with a specific address, the measurement command set, sensor response behavior, byte frame format and allowed characters. Timing requirements such as length of the break condition used to awaken sensors, minimum time between messages and length of time before a sensor enters a low-power state; the standard provides guidelines on transient protection and does not require the use of a specific connector. The specification document describes a number of advantages including: Interchangeability of sensors without reprogramming of data acquisition devices Power is supplied to sensors through the interface Ability to implement self-calibration algorithms within the sensor itself and use low-cost EEPROMs for information storage Applicability of training in SDI-12 to a variety of sensors and data recordersThe SDI-12 Specification is in the public domain. Communication occurs over a single data line in half-duplex; the digital addressing system allows an SDI-Recorder to communicate with up to 62 individual sensors.

Only the pre-configured sensor matching that address will respond. Other sensors on the same line will not respond until called and stay in "sleep mode", until called. Electrically the protocol is a three wire digital connection: data, ground and 12 V; the data signal, using 5V logic levels is similar to RS-232 with the same asynchronous byte encoding. The inline data is human readable as the data is transmitted in ASCII. All SDI-12 communications are transmitted in ASCII at 1200 baud with 7 data bits and an parity bit; the standard specifies a communications protocol that allows sensors to remain in a low-power sleep state until awoken by a serial break signal sent by the master. The first character of each command is a unique sensor address that specifies with which sensor the recorder wants to communicate. Other sensors on the SDI-12 bus ignore the return to low-power standby mode; the protocol specifies a retry mechanism to overcome any data corruption. CRCs were introduced to the SDI-12 protocol with release of version 1.3.

The protocol is most supported by hydrographic sensors, water quality sensors, meteorological instruments, soil moisture and plant physiology. Less common but known to be supported are sensors for the measurement of solar radiation and other geophysical parameters. Data logger RS-232 RS-485 Serial communications Transducers SDI-12 Support Group