Anybody use flow charts for logic design?

[Donny Bahama]

Does anyone use flow charts to design the logic flow of a page (especially complex pages) before starting to write the code? If so, can you recommend an easy to use (and preferably free/open source) flow charting app for Windows?

[grahame]

In effect, yes I do. It's called "PHP" and I write a lot of comments and calls to functions that I'll come back to and fill in later.

[Donny Bahama]

Cool! Where can I get this "PHP"?
(Gee, and you're usually so helpful, Graham! )

This actually relates back to my "writer's block" post... It was as though my brain was caught in a whirlpool. Even with all my comments and function calls, my mind was just spinning in the logic flow. I ended up writing out the logic flow in plain text, which helped quite a bit. So it occurred to me that if I had an easy to use, graphical flow-charting utility it might have been really helpful.

[grahame]

Seriously, two possible approaches:

a) talk it through with a geek friend (I guess that's what your writer's block post does)

b) A tiny logic flowchart - fag packet design. See here

I admit I'm NOT a great user of tools - preferring to think it through, draw a few simple diagrams .... I see little point in using a sophisticated flow chart package when simple oxes on a bit of paper will do the trick more often than not.