ECE & EEE | I YEAR | II SEMESTER B1360 | COMPUTER PROGRAMMING | UNIT 2
9 |Prepared By : Mr. PRABU.U/AP |Dept. of Computer Science and Engineering | SKCET |
3. Limitations of Flowcharts
Flowchart can be used for designing the basic concept of the program in pictorial
form but cannot be used for programming purposes. Some of the limitations of the
flowchart are given as follows:
i) Complex: The major disadvantage in using flowcharts is that when a program is very
large, the flowcharts may continue for many pages, making them hard to follow.
ii) Costly: Drawing flowcharts are viable only if the problem-solving logic is
straightforward and not very lengthy. However, if flowcharts are to be drawn for a huge
application, the time and cost factor of program development may get out of proportion,
making it a costly affair.
iii) Difficult to Modify: Due to its symbolic nature, any changes or modification to a
flowchart usually requires redrawing the entire logic again, and redrawing a complex
flowchart is not a simple task. It is not easy to draw thousands of flow lines and symbols
along with proper spacing, especially for a large complex program.
iv) No Update: Usually programs are updated regularly. However, the corresponding
update of flowcharts may not take place, especially in the case of large programs. As a
result, the logic used in the flowchart may not match with the actual program's logic.
2.6. PSEUDOCODE
Pseudocode is made up of two words: pseudo and code. Pseudo means imitation
and code refers to instructions, written in a programming language. As the name
suggests, pseudocode is not a real programming code, but it models and may
even look like programming code.
Pseudo code uses plain English statements rather than symbols, to represent the
processes of a computer program. It is also known as PDL (Program Design
Language), as it emphasizes more on the design aspect of a computer program or
structured English, because usually pseudo code instructions are written in
normal English, but in a structured way.
If an algorithm is written in English, the description may be at such a high level
that it may prove difficult to analyze the algorithm and then to transform it into
actual code.
If instead, the algorithm is written in code, the programmer has to invest a lot of
time in determining the details of an algorithm, which he may choose not to
implement (since, typically, algorithms are analyzed before deciding which one
to implement).
Therefore, the goal of writing pseudocode is to provide a high-level description
of an algorithm, which facilitates analysis and eventual coding, but at the same
time suppresses many of the details that are insignificant.
Example: The pseudocode given below calculates the area of a rectangle.
PROMPT the user to enter the height of the rectangle
PROMPT the user to enter the width of the rectangle
COMPUTE the area by multiplying the height with width
DISPLAY the area
STOP