>I've often wished for some way to construct software without coding. Flowcharting seems less valuable because it is neither what the user sees, nor what the programmer finally creates. For those who can't visuallize, a blueprint is problematic.
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I spent 9 months, right after school, in a "computer business management" school paid for by my employer. The whole nine months was spent flowcharting. I've written several full cycle accounting/billing systems (from scratch) for wide range of industries. Two things made those projects possible. One is the similarity of business rules in what most of would consider disparate industries, and the other was fLow charting, which enabled me develop a general outline of the user's requirements in very short order. I have a pretty good idea of what the system will look like within the first hour of a requirements interview.

I don't actually symbolically "flow" the whole sytem on paper. Sometimes, I'll flow modules, or engines within modules, on paper - these eventually turn into little 3D pipe doodles:-)

To do full -cycle projects, flow charting skills are absolutely necessary for an outsider (like me) to specify, plan and schedule a big system. There is no substitute.

Some people program to a specification. My work requires I write the specification as well as the code.

>There are supposed to be software to build and test electronic circuits (for a toy robot), without actually making the circuit. There are CAD packages that let you see a toy robot. I've never heard of anything that combines all of this so one could visualize the robot, assemble the circuitry and see the robot operate in a virtual environment. IMO all software runs in a virtual environment.


I've seen these tyes of systems as early as 1985. During the test, graphical output would actually present flow chart symbols. Instead of true or false, however, voltages would be shown at decision diamonds and terminators:-)