Subj : Re: Flowchart software that supports top down development?
To   : comp.programming,microsoft.public.vb.general.discussion,microsoft.public.visio.developer
From : Phlip
Date : Wed Jul 27 2005 03:24 am

LurfysMa wrote:

> I am looking for a flowcharting program that will allow me to design
> my code top down:
>
> 1. Start with a very high level (functional) flowchart consisting of a
> few functional modules. For example, (a) Start, (b) User Logon, (c)
> Load Data, (d) Select Test, (e) Administer Test, (f) Logoff. (g) Exit.
>
> 2. Each of the "modules" (shapes) would be identified as having a
> lower level or not. If they have a lower level, the program would
> generate an "open link" to another flowchart, probably on another
> page, having that name.
>
> 3. Until the lower level routine is written, the link would be
> "unresolved" and a list of unresolved links could be generated to
> identify work remaining to be done.

> Does anything like this exist?

Nobody does top-down like that any more. That technique was once promoted as
"structural programming". It has a major flaw.

The flaw is you can't test the program and get perfect behavior until you
code everything. (And the system you describe is _coding_, not designing or
planning. If you get the flowchart wrong, the result will have bugs.

Writing bugs and detecting them a long time later is a very bad practice.

To learn the most modern technique to design, google for "Test-Driven
Development". It will feel like the system you envision, but no bugs.

-- 
  Phlip
  http://www.c2.com/cgi/wiki?ZeekLand

.