Re: AW: flow diagrams

["Steven J. Owens" <puff -at- NETCOM -dot- COM>]

Ternes, Andreas writes:
> >>Comments please on a good software package to create flow charts.  I
need
> to create illustrations of application areas.<<

Andreas (from Germany) recommends:
> try VISIO. It is a good program for drawing flow charts. And it contains a
> large number of "ready to use" symbols for a lot of areas.
> Another choice might be COREL Flow. I used it a lot in earlier days (about
> three years ago), but I don't know if it is still on the market.

     Visio is an amazingly powerful applicatoin, sort of the Adobe
Photoshop of the diagramming/flowcharting market.  If you're doing
enough to make it worth your investment of time and energy to learn
it, then go for it.  However if you're just doing some quickie flow
charts and diagrams, it may be overkill (kind of like using Photoshop
to draw a simple diagram).

     PowerPoint also has some stuff that makes it a bit handier than
your average drawing program for doing diagrms and flowcharts, but I
can't say alot about it because I've never used it, for much the same
reason;  the sheer difficulty of wading through all the stuff that's
irrelevant to what I want to do.

     One package that a coworker uses for flow charts (he's an old big
iron Cobol programmer, they do a lot of flow charting) is "Flow
Charting " from Patton & Patton.  It seems like a good middle ground
between your typical drawing program and something like Visio.  I
found it *very* easy to ue.  A quick visit to their web site:

     http://www.patton-patton.com/

     Shows a free demo download and a $49 price tag for the "lite"
version.

Steven J. Owens
puff -at- netcom -dot- com

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