50 years ago today, one of the first software patent applications is filed by the British Petroleum Company. It proposes to “solve automatically a linear programming problem by means of an iterative algorithm whereby it (a) transfers data representations from the slow-access to the quick-access storage, (b) transfers a suitable portion of data representations, as it becomes available by transference as specified in (a), back and forth, without intermediate transfer to slow-access storage, between the quick-access storage and the arithmetic unit where the portion is processed in accordance with at least two iterations of the iterative algorithm during at least one performance of process (b), and (c) returns the processed portion to slow-access storage.”