From: william E Davidsen (davidsen@ariel.crd.GE.COM)
Date: 04/21/93


From: davidsen@ariel.crd.GE.COM (william E Davidsen)
Subject: Re: Flowchart symbols (in ASCII) ISO-1028 [BACK AT YA]
Date: Wed, 21 Apr 1993 18:05:47 GMT

In article <C5t8uq.FKp@sugar.neosoft.com>, peter@NeoSoft.com (Peter da Silva) writes:

| Personally, I draw boxes when I'm figuring out the data flow on a system,
| but using boxes for control flow just obscures things. There *are* lots of
| better tools out there.

  Given the hardware restraints of paper and pencil, I find flowcharts
work nicely. I'm afraid some of the symbols I use were never taught, but
as a quick highlevel design tool for various things, I still find it
useful. I use 3x5 cards, so I can drop a procedure on its own card.

  As a roadmap to a large system they are also very useful, to get
someone to understand the rough structure, they are useful. I confess to
mixing flow of control and dataflow on a single diagram, using colors
when I have them, funny arrows when I don't.

-- 
bill davidsen, GE Corp. R&D Center; Box 8; Schenectady NY 12345
    Last year I worried that Bush would die and let Quayle take over.
    This year I worry that Hillary will die and let Bill take over.