You are creating a drawing from words to show how the data flows through the program and quickly communicate the data transformation. Really when you think about it, flowcharts are just another example of data visualization. Now the first thing I do is start creating flowcharts when I’m handed code or even requirements documents. It was a good learning experience for me as well. The person who came behind me most likely thought the process was confusing but received more documentation than I did about what the code was designed to do and how the flow worked. It helped the managers visualize the job flow as well. It was so impossible, we finally started taking requirements from the code and tossed most of the code in the Unix trash can.įor the remake, I created many flowcharts with my good friend MS Visio. I created a flowchart for the code before starting but it was impossible to read. How do you learn someone else’s spaghettiįor a SAS Global Forum 2011, I wrote a paper called Plate of Spaghetti Anyone? about learning someone’s else code. I’ve come to see this situation as an industry hazard. The job had many owners and had grown out of control in its 5-year lifetime. One of the most confusing projects I ever worked on required completely re-writing a job that had more than 100,000 lines of code. As a programming consultant, many times I’m given a ZIP file that is full of code and asked, “What does this code do?” When you are on a project with me, you’ll grow weary of hearing me say “Can you draw it?” Something magical happens for me when I see a flow or see an idea illustrated.
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