Flowchart programming with Excel

Jukka Eskola and Jorma Tarhio: Flowchart programming with Excel. Report C-2000-52, Department of Computer Science, University of Helsinki, October 2000. <http://www.cs.helsinki.fi/TR/C-2000/52>

Full paper: Postscript file

Abstract

We show how to implement a flowchart programming environment with Microsoft Excel using visualization and macro programming features of Excel. Our system, called Flopex, visualizes the execution of a program, and it can be utilized in teaching programming. Advanced features of Excel can directly be accessed from the flowchart program, and so even the animation of user data structures is possible. Flowchart programming is not our aim in itself, but we demonstrate the capabilities of Excel as a platform for implementation of visual languages and making experiments with them.

Index Terms

Categories and Subject Descriptors:
D.1.7 Visual Programming
D.2.2 Design Tools and Techniques: Flowcharts

General Terms: Program Visualisation

Additional Key Words and Phrases: Flowchart Programming, Animation of Flowcharts