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Flow outlining—a substitute for flow charting

Flow outlining—a substitute for flow charting A n o t h e r example of a pseudo feature is the pseudo i~terval i i m e r : one of ~hese is p r o v i d e d for each problem t)r()gralll. {Fhe stlt)ervisory progrtH--tl cOOI'(~il~ates iiK~ resuI(big m u l l i p l e uses of the built-it, il~t,erval timer. T h e need to d e t e c t that a program has beeome s t u c k i,~ a loop, or t h a t ~tn o p e r a t o r has ~ot respo~ded to a~ i~>tructio~ f r o m the s u p e r v i s o r y program, is met by allotting a reasomtble time limit for the a c t i v i t y i~ q~estion. Whe~. this interval expires w i t h o u t the s u p e r v i s ) r y progra.m receixi g a (~oml)letio~ signal :m overdue signal is sent to an a p p r o p r i a t e console. T h e interval timer is, of course, used for this p u r p o s e a~d expiration of the i n t e r v a l is it~dieate(t b y the time signal interruption. 5. C o n c l u d i n g Remarks I{EFERENCE8 ST R ETC H t. S. W. 1)~:x~:~,L "I)esig~/ Objectives %r ~he IBM Stretch Computer", Proceedin!}a ~g EJCC (December 195(~). 2. F. P, Bm)oEs, Jm, "A Program-Cock,roiled Progr~m~ lmerrupti(m System", Proeeedin~s (g EJCC (December 1957). 3. W. BvcHu~tz. "The Se/eeti r Flow Charting with the flow outline. A d d i t i o n a l s t a t e l n e n t s can be a d d e d b y using a n y c¢mvenient subscripts desired. A sample e x a m p l e follows. AA BB BBI BB2 BB2A BB2B BB3 BB4 CC Reset SUM Y ~o zero, eject page. Read a card, branch to B B i i f i = 1, 2, 3,4 where i is digit in column 1. If i # 1, 2, 3, 4, go to CC. Alphabetic comments card, print columns 11..80 alphabetieally, go to BB. Data card, containing X t , X~, Xa, compute g = X, + X~Xa + X~Xe. Print X~ Re Xa Y. SUM Y + Y .-, SUM Y, go to BB. Total eard, double space, print SUM Y, go to AA. End of job, start next program. Error condition, print error rnessage, pass remaining data cards, start next program. Communications of the ACM 17 W. T. (~A.NT, Shell Oil C<,mpany, Midhmd, Texas T h e c o m p u t i n g group with Sl:mll Oil C o m p a n y , M i d land, Texas, has been using a m e t h o d of describing p r o b l e m s t h a t replaces the need for flow c h a r t s where coding m u s t be done with a syrnbolic assembler instead of a compiler. W e call it flow outlining and consider it superior to flow charting because it is less time consuming to prepare, e~,sier to code from, a n d p e r m i t s more d e t a i l e d rein.arks where needed. P r o b a b l y the most a t t r a c t i v e a d v a n t a g e is t h e ease w i t h which one can m a k e additions or cross out, errors and then hand a v e r y markedup page to a typist and get back a neat corrected copy. T h e form is quite simple, consisting of a symbolic identification eolunm and a s t a t e m e n t of what is to be performed. The same symbolic identification is used in the coding, thus making it very easy to check the coding http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png Communications of the ACM Association for Computing Machinery

Flow outlining—a substitute for flow charting

Gant, W. T.
Communications of the ACM , Volume 2 (11) – Nov 1, 1959
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Publisher
Association for Computing Machinery
Copyright
Copyright © 1959 by ACM Inc.
ISSN
0001-0782
DOI
10.1145/368481.368505
Publisher site
See Article on Publisher Site

Abstract

A n o t h e r example of a pseudo feature is the pseudo i~terval i i m e r : one of ~hese is p r o v i d e d for each problem t)r()gralll. {Fhe stlt)ervisory progrtH--tl cOOI'(~il~ates iiK~ resuI(big m u l l i p l e uses of the built-it, il~t,erval timer. T h e need to d e t e c t that a program has beeome s t u c k i,~ a loop, or t h a t ~tn o p e r a t o r has ~ot respo~ded to a~ i~>tructio~ f r o m the s u p e r v i s o r y program, is met by allotting a reasomtble time limit for the a c t i v i t y i~ q~estion. Whe~. this interval expires w i t h o u t the s u p e r v i s ) r y progra.m receixi g a (~oml)letio~ signal :m overdue signal is sent to an a p p r o p r i a t e console. T h e interval timer is, of course, used for this p u r p o s e a~d expiration of the i n t e r v a l is it~dieate(t b y the time signal interruption. 5. C o n c l u d i n g Remarks I{EFERENCE8 ST R ETC H t. S. W. 1)~:x~:~,L "I)esig~/ Objectives %r ~he IBM Stretch Computer", Proceedin!}a ~g EJCC (December 195(~). 2. F. P, Bm)oEs, Jm, "A Program-Cock,roiled Progr~m~ lmerrupti(m System", Proeeedin~s (g EJCC (December 1957). 3. W. BvcHu~tz. "The Se/eeti r Flow Charting with the flow outline. A d d i t i o n a l s t a t e l n e n t s can be a d d e d b y using a n y c¢mvenient subscripts desired. A sample e x a m p l e follows. AA BB BBI BB2 BB2A BB2B BB3 BB4 CC Reset SUM Y ~o zero, eject page. Read a card, branch to B B i i f i = 1, 2, 3,4 where i is digit in column 1. If i # 1, 2, 3, 4, go to CC. Alphabetic comments card, print columns 11..80 alphabetieally, go to BB. Data card, containing X t , X~, Xa, compute g = X, + X~Xa + X~Xe. Print X~ Re Xa Y. SUM Y + Y .-, SUM Y, go to BB. Total eard, double space, print SUM Y, go to AA. End of job, start next program. Error condition, print error rnessage, pass remaining data cards, start next program. Communications of the ACM 17 W. T. (~A.NT, Shell Oil C<,mpany, Midhmd, Texas T h e c o m p u t i n g group with Sl:mll Oil C o m p a n y , M i d land, Texas, has been using a m e t h o d of describing p r o b l e m s t h a t replaces the need for flow c h a r t s where coding m u s t be done with a syrnbolic assembler instead of a compiler. W e call it flow outlining and consider it superior to flow charting because it is less time consuming to prepare, e~,sier to code from, a n d p e r m i t s more d e t a i l e d rein.arks where needed. P r o b a b l y the most a t t r a c t i v e a d v a n t a g e is t h e ease w i t h which one can m a k e additions or cross out, errors and then hand a v e r y markedup page to a typist and get back a neat corrected copy. T h e form is quite simple, consisting of a symbolic identification eolunm and a s t a t e m e n t of what is to be performed. The same symbolic identification is used in the coding, thus making it very easy to check the coding

Journal

Communications of the ACM – Association for Computing Machinery

Published: Nov 1, 1959

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