Programming the Mark I: Early Programming Activity at the University of Manchester

Computer activity at Manchester University began in 1946 with the construction of a CRT-based memory, which was followed by a series of prototype computers. The work culminated in the Ferranti Mark I, completed in early 1951. This paper describes the programming systems devised, first for the prototype and then for the production Mark I, and includes an account of two novel automatic coding schemes developed during 1952 and 1954.The paper concludes with an assessment of the programming activity.