---
title: "Planning and Coding of Problems for an Electronic Computing Instrument"
authors:
  - "Herman H. Goldstine"
  - "John von Neumann"
year: 1947
venue: "Institute for Advanced Study reports (Parts I–III)"
arxiv: null
doi: null
source: "https://www.ias.edu/sites/default/files/library/pdfs/ecp/planningcodingof0103inst.pdf"
topics:
  - coding
  - flow-diagrams
  - von-neumann
  - programming
seed_rank: 544
seed_batch: "foundations-greats-2026-08-13"
reviewed: "2026-08-13"
pool: "languages"
relevance_score: 9
lineage: foundations-of-computing
cites:
  - title: "Preliminary Discussion of the Logical Design of an Electronic Computing Instrument"
    url: "https://www.ias.edu/sites/default/files/library/pdfs/ecp.preliminarydiscussion.pdf"
    year: 1946
    arxiv: null
    doi: null
  - title: "First Draft of a Report on the EDVAC"
    url: "https://web.mit.edu/STS.035/www/PDFs/edvac.pdf"
    year: 1945
    arxiv: null
    doi: "10.5479/sil.538961.39088011475779"
  - title: "The Preparation of Programs for an Electronic Digital Computer"
    url: "https://archive.org/details/preparationofpro00wilk"
    year: 1951
    arxiv: null
    doi: null
  - title: "The Education of a Computer"
    url: "https://doi.org/10.1145/609784.609798"
    year: 1952
    arxiv: null
    doi: "10.1145/609784.609798"
see:
  - "543-preliminary-discussion-of-the-logical-design-of-an-electroni"
  - "542-first-draft-of-a-report-on-the-edvac"
  - "572-the-preparation-of-programs-for-an-electronic-digital-comput"
  - "571-the-education-of-a-computer"
---

# Planning and Coding of Problems for an Electronic Computing Instrument

## One-sentence takeaway

Goldstine and von Neumann invent the flow diagram—operation boxes, alternative boxes, substitution boxes, assertion boxes—and treat coding as a dynamic logic of a control that rewrites its own orders.

## Why it matters here

Programming as a discipline begins here, not only architecture. Anoptic job graphs, GRID COMMAND trigger flow, and any later "draw the control first, then fill the boxes" habit are this notation. The report itself says coding is "a new branch of formal logics."

## Key ideas

- Part II, Volumes I–III of the IAS ECP series (1 April 1947; 15 April 1948; 16 August 1948), bound together in the IAS scan.
- Flow diagrams distinguish static code in memory from the dynamic course of C, which jumps, loops, and rewrites orders via substitution.
- Worked examples run from elementary arithmetic through binary/decimal conversion and double-precision arithmetic.
- Four comparison criteria for codes: engineering simplicity, compactness, human ease of translation and correction, and machine efficiency.

## Caveats

## Links

- IAS combined PDF: https://www.ias.edu/sites/default/files/library/pdfs/ecp/planningcodingof0103inst.pdf
- IAS ECP archive: https://www.ias.edu/library/ecp