The “Plankalkül” of Konrad Zuse: a forerunner of today's programming languages
Plankalkül was an attempt by Konrad Zuse in the 1940's to devise a notational and conceptual system for writing what today is termed a program. Although this early approach to a programming language did not lead to practical use, the plan is described here because it contains features that are standard in today's programming languages. The investigation is of historical interest; also, it may provide insights that would lead to advancements in the state of the art. Using modern programming terminology, the Plankalkül is presented to the extent it has been possible to reconstruct it from the published literature.