John von Neumann invented flowcharts, and they were in a sense the first real high level language. Of course, the "compiler" in this relationship was the human,

John von Neumann invented flowcharts, and they were in a sense the first real high level language. Of course, the "compiler" in this relationship was the human, who would translate a flowchart into alterations in relay switches (or other bare metal hackery)...which themselves don't have a step-by-step logical quality. Flowcharts were 100 percent obsolete when Fortran and COBOL came into use. However, some managers still insist on the presence of them in design documentation. This is, perhaps, the single greatest indicator of incompetence available to us.