Flowchart N. [techspeak] An Archaic Form Of Visual Control-flow Specification Employing Arrows And `speech Balloons' Of Various Shapes.

HomeFortune CookiesJargon File

flowchart n.

[techspeak] An archaic form of visual
control-flow specification employing arrows and `speech
balloons' of various shapes. Hackers never use flowcharts,
consider them extremely silly, and associate them with COBOL
programmers, card wallopers, and other lower forms of life.
This attitude follows from the observations that flowcharts (at
least from a hacker's point of view) are no easier to read than
code, are less precise, and tend to fall out of sync with the code
(so that they either obfuscate it rather than explaining it, or
require extra maintenance effort that doesn't improve the code).
See also PDL, sense 1.

Related: