Flowchartinq With the A N S I Standard: A Tutorial
Page8 Page9
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Fie. 23. A flow diagram with connectors and
cross-references
be broken at any point. One way of doing
it is shown in Figure 23. The connector
outhne does not substitute for any other
outline but instead serves as an additional
outline, in effect specializing the flowline
symbol.
As one reads the line of flow down the which refer to portions of the program
page 8 part of Figure 23, one encounters an
exit or outconnector A3. The reader can
then search Figure 23 for an entry or in-
connector having the same identifying set
of characters A3 within it. This entry or
inconnector is the continuation of the flow.
The identffication within the entry and
exit connectors must permit unequivocal
and unique identification of the one ap-
propriate entry connector to be associated
with each exit connector.
To facilitate finding the entry connector
for each exit connector, the common prac-
tice is to use cross-references in the man-
ner described previously If any name has
been assigned to a portion of the algorithm
or program (that is, the program data
structure), such as T H R D , then this name
may be entered above and immediately to
the left of the connector, or within the con-
nector itself If a coordinate plan has been
• 137
established for identifying portions of the
flow diagram, then the location indication
can be entered above and immediately to
the right of the connector, as shown in Fig-
ure 23.
The standard does not specify any par-
ticular coordinate convention for use spe-
cifically in flow diagrams. As a practical
matter the most common convention used
is a page number followed by a row and
then a column designation (see Figure 24
for an example). Some omit the row des-
ignation and some omit the column
designation Some use a sequential count
to provide an index of the position within
a row or within a column of a connector
position. Anything that begins with a digit
causes no confusion since names in most
programming languages may not start
with a numeral.
The symbolic name and cross-reference
notations may be used with any outline, not
just with connectors. T h e y are needed for
all horizontally striped outlines, as a mini-
mum, as shown in Figure 23. The names
also provide a way of cross-referencing
any part of the flow sequence shown in the
flow diagram to the actual program coding.
This is illustrated in Figure 23 by the
names F R T H and F I N , for example,
ROWS
Page
A *
B
C
D
E
F
G
H
I
J
K
L
M
N
O
P
Q
R
1 2 3 4 5
COLUMNS
*Example thus, 9A1 =son page9,
row A. column 1. and 9G4 is on
page 9, row G, column 4
FzG 24 One cross-referencingscheme
Computing Surveys, Vol. 2, No. 2, June 1970