CMPT 120 Chapter Notes - Chapter 1: Drakon, Unified Modeling Language, Ben Shneiderman

• School: Simon Fraser University
• Department: Computing Science
• Course: CMPT 120
• Professor: Liaqat Ali

Document Summary

As a visual representation of data flow, flowcharts are useful in writing a program or algorithm and explaining it to others or collaborating with them on it. Can use a flowchart to spell out the logic behind a program before ever starting to code the automated process. Can help to organize big-picture thinking and provide a guide when it comes time to code. Visualize the execution of code within a program. Show the structure of a website or application. Understand how users navigate a website or program. Often, programmers may write pseudocode, a combination of natural language and computer language able to be read by people. May allow greater detail than the flowchart and serve either as a replacement for the flowchart or as a next step to actual code. Unified modeling language (uml): this is a general-purpose language used in software engineering for modeling. Nassi-shneiderman diagrams: used for structured computer programming.