Flowchart – Specify That a Spawned Process Returns to a Parent

flowchart

I am using yED to build an application flow-chart, and I can't figure out a 'nice' looking way of representing that a GUI's call to spawn a process loops back to the GUI process once it terminates, other than drawing another arrow to the GUI process.

Is there a better way of presenting a process looping back to its parent on return/exit other than drawing another arrow back to the parent?

Best Answer

In an ordinary flowchart (not a UML diagram), any box that represents some other process, subroutine or method (returning back to the caller) would be represented by a box having double-vertical lines instead of single, the Predefined Process Symbol.

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Return to the calling entity is indicated by flow control passing through the box, and out the other side, just as it would with any other non-terminating shape.

Related Solutions

State Machine Diagrams – How to Diagram State Machine Code

You probably will want either a full traditional state diagram or a summary pseudo-state diagram.

The full diagram would have a state circle for each of the (in your example) 72 states, and each of the transitions (including self loops). Such a diagram is good for documentation and study for modifications. It is easier to deal with than the C code as it suppresses the irrelevant verbiage.

A summary diagram would be better for an introduction to the state machine code. It would require you to figure out some "super states" that represent groups of real states. This is often not too hard. In your example, it looks like the states with the "NS_HTML5TOKENIZER_COMMENT" name prefix can be grouped together, for instance. So in your diagram you would have one "comment parsing" super state to represent these 6 six real states. Then you make a fairly normal state diagram using these super states, showing the major transitions (or all, if you want accuracy) between the super states. This reduces the complexity of the diagram and show the major functions going on in the machine.

Flowchart – While Loops Process

Is the algorithm done once you remove one block that does not meet the threshold? If not, you need a loop that iterates over each block. You also need an exit condition if you have no blocks that fail to meet the threshold. Maybe something like this?

         Start
          |
          V
         Split signal
          |
          V
 /------ More blocks? <----\  <----\
 | (n)    |(y)             |       |
 V        V                |       |
End      Get next block    |       |
          |                |       |
          V                |       |
         Calculate         |       |
          |                |       |
          V                |       |
         Meets threshold? -/ (y)   |
          | (n)                    |
          V                        |
         Remove frame -------------/

Note, I don't normally do flow charts for my day-to-day activities so forgive me if I'm off base here.

Best Answer

Related Solutions

State Machine Diagrams – How to Diagram State Machine Code

Flowchart – While Loops Process

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