One useful
application of flow charts is in the definition
of algorithms. Algorithms are essentially decompositions
of functions into smaller functions that specify the activities encompassed
within a given process.
About this task
This
flow chart approach to code generation
is to reduce the diagram to blocks of sequential code and then search
for If/Loop patterns in those blocks. The following structured programming
control structures are supported in flow charts:
- Simple If
- If/Then/Else
- While loops (where the test is at the start of
the loop)
- Do/While loops (where the test is
at the end of
the loop)
If the algorithm does not succeed
to impose
the structure, then it will need to use a GoTo.