ICL Flowcharting Template

This clear plastic template has fourteen holes in it. A scale of tenths of an inch across the top has 57 divisions (i.e. it is 5 7/10” long), and a scale of sixths of an inch along the left side has twenty-three divisions (i.e. it is 3 5/6” long). Scales of centimeters are across the bottom and along the right side. A mark on the template reads: ICL. Another one reads: CES. A third one reads: NCC DATA PROCESSING STANDARDS.

The template was distributed by the English firm ICL and, according to the accession file, was used by Dr. Shaw in the 1960s. The British firm of ICL or International Computers Ltd. was formed by a 1968 merger. The forms shown on the template are those advocated by the National Computer Center in Manchester, England, in a 1977 report.

Born in England, Mildred Shaw graduated from the teacher’s college at the University of London in 1966, obtained a B.Sc. in mathematical sciences, and then took an M. Sc. in computer science, graduating in 1972. She became the Coordinator of the Mathematics and Computer Science Department at Middlesex Polytechnic (then Trent Park College) in London. She obtained her Ph.D. in psychology from Brunel University in 1978. In 1984, she moved to Canada, first teaching at York University in Toronto and then becoming a Professor of Computer Science at the University of Calgary.

References:

Accession file.

National Computing Centre Ltd., Data Processing Documentation Standards, Manchester, England, 1977.

Robert Hadden Mole, “Mildred Shaw: A Core Constructivist,” Constructivist Chronicle, vol. 3, #1, Winter, 1999.

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