The pseudocode and block diagram as professional programming

[compsystems]

The pseudocode and block diagram are already being used as professional programming

Flowcode is the perfect flowchart language for platforms such as Arduino. However, users can now program in "Blocks" mode, "Pseudocode" as well as C code. Programming using Blocks can be likened to the way the Blockly library is used to create block programming languages such as Scratch or App Inventor, whilst Pseudocode gives users a new way to construct commands and build programs without the complexities of C.

mas info: https://www.matrixtsl.com/flowcode/new/

block diagram



English Pseudocode


Flowcharts

[cruff]

That "pseudocode" looked a bit like Cobol to me. I assume the one in that example picture is actually executable.

I never understood why someone would bother writing non-executable pseudocode instead of directly in the language of your choice, unless it was meant for books.

[Maximilian Hohmann]

Hello!

(10-03-2018 06:15 PM)compsystems Wrote:  Flowcode is the perfect flowchart language for platforms such as Arduino. ...

After a dozen or so clicks, they are really quite secretive about finacial issues, I found out that their standard (not professional, not academic) license pack for the Arduino alone costs 360 GBP. Which does not appeal at all to "us" Arduino tinkerers because we are used to paying very little money for the hardware and nothing at all for the software...

But maybe this kind of software can be useful for programming courses for laypeople. Arduinos are used by people like artists to add light, sound and motion to their creation but who often have very little technical background. But I don't really see much advantage in teaching people blocks and pseudocode over C directly.

Myself I have encountered pseudocode only once while I was involved in professional software development. This was created by a muli-platform GUI builder (whose name I have long forgotten) to be compiled by dedicated "pseudo code compilers" for the different target platforms. As the software had it's quirks, this pseudo-code required manual adjustments here and there and therefore needed to be learned and understood to a certain degree.

Regards
Max

[mfleming]

(10-04-2018 02:19 AM)cruff Wrote:  I never understood why someone would bother writing non-executable pseudocode instead of directly in the language of your choice, unless it was meant for books.

This is the age-old debate between the "Just do it!" programming crowd (exemplified by the t-shirt cat | cc - ; a.out ) and the design before you build crowd. An interesting approach to the latter is Test Driven Development in a Jupyter notebook environment. I'm just now dipping my toes in this approach and find it to be a very satisfying example of interactive Literate Programming. TDD forces you to think of the API before coding, and the notebook documents the code results. Before long you find yourself focused as much on capturing the development thought process in prose as in code. Bonus: months later you don't have to figure out what the heck you wrote

Try it sometime!
~Mark

[Maximilian Hohmann]

Hello!

(10-04-2018 02:42 PM)mfleming Wrote:  ... by the t-shirt cat | cc - ; a.out ) ...

I like that :-) Unfortunately very few people (less than one in one hundred I guess) will know what your t-shirt is all about. And unfortunately my Macintosh does not like it: "clang: error: -E or -x required when input is from standard input"

[burkhard]

(10-04-2018 09:40 AM)Maximilian Hohmann Wrote:  Hello!

(10-03-2018 06:15 PM)compsystems Wrote:  Flowcode is the perfect flowchart language for platforms such as Arduino. ...

After a dozen or so clicks, they are really quite secretive about finacial issues, I found out that their standard (not professional, not academic) license pack for the Arduino alone costs 360 GBP. Which does not appeal at all to "us" Arduino tinkerers because we are used to paying very little money for the hardware and nothing at all for the software...

I had the same feelings as you regarding how much work it took to find out what it cost. Somehow, though, I managed to navigate down a path that led me to a "hobbyist price" of 50£, which is lot more reasonable. I'm not sure if that is crippled or if they merely take your honor that it will be used in a non-commercial manner.

The cagey non-straightforward approach to pricing is a bit of a turnoff. Tell us the version(s) offered, the features/restrictions of each, and the prices.

[Maximilian Hohmann]

Hello!

(10-04-2018 04:58 PM)burkhard Wrote:  Somehow, though, I managed to navigate down a path that led me to a "hobbyist price" of 50£, which is lot more reasonable.

By clicking through the site a little more I found out that there is even a free version, but for the Arduino Uno (Atmega 328 processor) only. I would have liked to give it a try, but unfortunately, different from all the other Arduino tools, it is not available for the Macintosh. Often these things are Java applications that run everywhere but not this one.

[EugeneNine]

Looked interesting but it seems there is only a download for windows.

[David Hayden]

I think flowcharts are a terrible way to specify algorithms because they are unstructured. Flowcode seems like a better tool. All modern development is done using structured languages.

Quote:I never understood why someone would bother writing non-executable pseudocode instead of directly in the language of your choice,

1. It's much easier to express an algorithm in English (or whatever human language you prefer)
2. It's easier to read an algorithm in human language than in computer code.
3. Most importantly, the human language says what the code is supposed to do. The computer language only says what it actually does. Thus it's hard to tell if code has a bug.
   

So when writing complex code, I start by writing it down in english as comments in the source file. Once I'm pretty sure I have the algorithm right, I fill in the code below the comments. For me at least, this tends to result in faster development, more reliable code and much better documented code.

[EugeneNine]

pseudocode, etc are taught in programming courses.I self taught myself on a c64 but in college had a couple course in programming and learned that they made sense. If your going to start from scratch writing a big complex program, the pseudocode breaks it down into smaller steps. Then you code each step and can test/debug.

[edryer]

Never used pseudocode or flowcharts through a four year degree in Computer Science and a Master's in the same subject... and this was twenty years or so ago!

I assumed then they went out with COBOL and punched cards!!

[EugeneNine]

Mine was '91 - '95.

They even gave us one of those plastic templates. I think I still have it somewhere.

[Massimo Gnerucci]

(11-23-2018 01:44 AM)edryer Wrote:  I assumed then they went out with COBOL and punched cards!!

COBOL never went out. ;)

[edryer]

(11-23-2018 07:54 AM)Massimo Gnerucci Wrote:  

(11-23-2018 01:44 AM)edryer Wrote:  I assumed then they went out with COBOL and punched cards!!

COBOL never went out.

Probably like PL/1 and Smalltalk there is a continuing low but steady demand for maintaining/improving existing codebases.... these folk who do this earn fortunes!

A company I worked for found it hard to find *ONE* available Smalltalk Developer in the whole of the UK!

[Don Shepherd]

(11-23-2018 01:44 AM)edryer Wrote:  I assumed then they went out with COBOL and punched cards!!

Punched cards never went out either! As late as six years ago, a company in Texas was still using IBM accounting machines, wired control panels, and punch cards for their daily operations. I emailed them about a year ago and they never responded, so I have a hunch they don't use them anymore.

[ijabbott]

(11-25-2018 07:09 AM)Don Shepherd Wrote:  Punched cards never went out either! As late as six years ago, a company in Texas was still using IBM accounting machines, wired control panels, and punch cards for their daily operations. I emailed them about a year ago and they never responded, so I have a hunch they don't use them anymore.

Perhaps the email plugboard for the IBM 402 isn't all that great.

[Don Shepherd]

(11-25-2018 12:28 PM)ijabbott Wrote:  Perhaps the email plugboard for the IBM 402 isn't all that great.

You know, that may be the reason they never responded!

Over the last two years I have collected plugboards and manuals for most of the IBM unit record equipment: 402 accounting machine, interpreter, collator, reproducer. Looking at these old relics, I have a real appreciation for the people who were able to use these to provide a remarkable level of automation in the age prior to electronic computers and programming languages. I wish that I would have had an opportunity to work on these machines of that era.

I used to hate IBM and their practices, but they did produce machines that served businesses well.

[compsystems]

Flowcode SCADA is the novelty of the latest version.
Flowcode SCADA allows users to quickly and easily create PC based control and data acquisition programs with graphical Human Machine Interfaces (HMI) based on flow charts.

[EugeneNine]

looks like its only windows