Feedback Examples in text, I will be flexible 

Forum: U Chicago, Com Sci 221 old messages, autumn 2000
Re: News Assignment #3, due 18 October (Mike O'Donnell)
Re: Question flow diagram conventions (Michael C. Brizic)
Date: 2000, Oct 13
From: Mike O'Donnell <odonnell@cs.uchicago.edu>

Are there any conventions that should be followed in drawing the flow diagrams for this assignment?
I'm not going to be strict about the form of flow diagrams, as long as they are very clear to me. The examples on pages 64 and 79 of the text might help. The convention that tests go in ``diamond'' shaped boxes (actually, just squares rotated 45 degrees) seems to be very appealing---I've never seen an exception to it. But I'm perfectly happy with rectangles instead of circles around the state-changing code. The key points are:
  1. Distinguish clearly between tests and changes to variable values;
  2. Make it clear which branch from a test corresponds to the true outcome and which to the false;
  3. Make it clear which direction each arrow goes (most people write flowcharts so that control flows mostly from top to bottom, but loops always violate that for at least one arrow);
  4. Put in just enough detail to make the real control issues clear (usually it's OK to put a whole boolean expression in a single test box, but with the C ``short-circuited'' boolean operators you must break some boolean expressions into sequences of tests).



Mike O'D.


Messages

1. Question flow diagrams as pictures? by Michael C. Brizic, 2000, Oct 14
(_ Feedback Yes, ASCII, HTML, or PostScript by Mike O'Donnell, 2000, Oct 14
(_ Question OK. More questions... by Michael C. Brizic, 2000, Oct 15
(_ Feedback Solution is not complex, but it's delicate by Mike O'Donnell, 2000, Oct 15

to: "Examples in text, I will be flexible"