Pictures of programs and other processes, or how to do things with lines

Abstract

The familiar flowchart has been widely used not only to explicate programs but also to present many other kinds of algorithms, rules and instructions. With the rise of structured programming, a number of competing notations have been produced, each trying to improve on flowcharts. Several of these notations are compared and empirical evidence is reviewed as to their success or failure, and some of the difficulties that arise with the new notations are pointed out. To emphasize the wide applicability of these notations illustrations are taken from everyday algorithms.