25 Feb
2010
25 Feb
'10
11:53 p.m.
Ethan Dicks wrote:
As for the lack of "advanced software-management tool[s]", most of the
books that I've read from the late 1970s and early 1980s fall into
that category. I don't think I learned anything "better" than
flowcharts and coding sheets until I hit the minicomputer world in the
mid-1980s (it sure wasn't any different when I took my first
programming course in college in 1984 - flowcharts were a mandatory
part of the homework and were graded quite rigorously).
Funny, I had a rather contrary experience. I'm looking here at a flowchart I
submitted as documenting material with a programming exercise in 1st-year
university in the late-70's. It was returned to me with the teaching assistant
having written on it:
"Ssssss. Let this be the last time.
Excellent (except the flowchart) 10/10"
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.
While I didn't see flowcharts much in the years after, I never saw a
"nested-block diagram" in real-world use.