26 Feb
2010
26 Feb
'10
12:36 a.m.
Brent Hilpert wrote:
At the time, flowcharts were being deprecated in favor
of "nested-block
diagrams" (for lack of any better description) to instil structured programming
concepts. Flowcharts had been deemed to be at odds with this. I had figured the
structure and limited complexity of the particular program was suitably
described by a flowchart. So much for judgement in choosing the appropriate tool.
Be happy that INTERCAL is not your first programing language.
While I didn't see flowcharts much in the years
after, I never saw a
"nested-block diagram" in real-world use.
Just what is nested block diagram?
I have yet to figure out the advantage of nested block programs
like pascal. You go down a few dozen levels - Oh crap I'm out
of data space - abort! You need that odd goto or unclean data
structure now and then! Some times you need static variables
just to know -- will I fit in memory on a realistic machine
or have realistic run time?
Ben.