I have been programming for the past ten years and I have always used some form of a flowchart. However, I learned to program in assembly and without a chart no human alive can navigate two thousand lines of mnemonics. About three years ago I started learning c/c++ and promptly forgot almost all of my assembly. I quickly found out that flowcharts are just as important in c. Sadly, as I browse through vast army of pseudo-developers I have to wonder if anyone even knows what a flowchart is! How many large projects have we all started only to find out halfway in to it that we left of something that could have been included if we had planed well? So, my question is does anyone on this forum use flowcharts?

Hi,

I know what flowcharts are, but I''ve never used them because I like to start coding when I want something to be coded. This is not really bad in small projects but you''re right, I should use flowcharts. I''m coding a Bomberman-clone in asm right now and some time ago I had to implement something, but it was very difficult to implement because I had to rewrite lots of code. I now know that planning how to do stuff is very important. Offcourse I planned some stuff when I began working on my Bomberman-clone, but I didn''t plan it well enough...

And about programming in assembly: my largest project is about 6000 lines of mnemonics and I know everything I need to know by reading the code+comments :-)

-my 2 cents-

flow charts are for sissies. just design by contract and you''re all set.

Object Modeling and a clear state transition diagram and a well defined requirement analysis should always be done for all projects (except for little easy to do projects.)

Thats my 2-cents

Well, in my programming class last year, the teacher insisted we do "Flow block" diagrams. He said flowcharts would be too complicated or something. Bastard. But just to let you know, yes, people still know what flowcharts are. Although I generally write out pseudocode for planning instead of a flowchart, because I write better than I draw I''m just used to writing stuff out I''m gonna do more than making a graphical representation.

In short, yes, people still do plan.

__Everytime I''ve attempted coding anything without a chart, 50 lines later I find myself having to make one anyways. They aren''t follproof though: I''ve been making my own key capture and interpretation routine and I had to rework my chart about a dozen times when I realized problems as I coded.
__Hmm, now that I think about it, I''ve never seen written in any post-mortem whether or not a chart was ever used. Maybe that''s why so many bugs creep in: no one has a guideline in front of them. Just a theory.

Flowcharts are good.

A flowchar would be anything that relates two subsystems togethers. I''m sure that people have often taken out a piece of paper and gone:

Input
/
\/
Game <--> Network
/
\/
GFX


Thats a flowchart.

Now... if you''re doing a larger project, and you design it well, you''ll have more of a chance in completing "REALLY" large projects without >junk< code. (The rewriting of code modules).

Everyone uses them in some form.

They''re usefull.

They''re fun.

They save you time in the long run.

(hmmm... that rhimes).

If you''re interested in flowcharts that are more relivant to higher-level programming, go and search amazon for books on design-patterns. I think that they give you a >knowledge< and realisation of problems, but I dont think that it''d be able to help you with cut''n''paste code.

If you want to learn for the sake of knowing more to be able to create programs in a more eligant way, i''d recommend everyone to read it, even though there is no immediate results obtained from reading the book.

As I say... reading some of the books on design-patterns increase your knowledge and understanding of program layout and design... so it is _kinda_ helpfull.

-Tim