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I understand a Flow Charter as being able to go thru my program and make a Flow Chart of it. Is this correct? Secondly, I need a way of figuring out what calls what at what time. How do you do this? I downloade some trial versions but I still haven't figured out how to use them. I want to be able to have a quick way of going thru my program and finding at a glance who calls what and be able to follow it quickly. I hope this is clear enuff!
I flowchart by hand when I run into some logic that is kinda tough to write out without the entire flow of it designed before hand.
I never flow chart and entire application, just small parts where I need it.
For example I wrote an application that is a paid subscription app, and when you start it up, it checks the subscription, and if they are current it does certain things like check for updates and download them, and if they arent current it does other things like prompt them to pay right there via the web, and then the logic has to backtrack after they pay to now download their updates, etc... that is kinda oversimplifying the entire process, but you get the idea.
I was getting kind of lost in all the logic, so I charted it out on paper, and got it finished much faster.
It helps you to see any potential pitfalls in the logic, and also makes you visually see on 1 piece of paper that all code routes lead to the correct outcome.
Moved
If you have a large app then it should have been flowcharted before any code was written. To go back and do it afterwards with a utility may not always produce the correct results. ;)
Flowcharting always helps especially in medium to large apps. For small apps its usually easy and small enough to manage in your mind.
Thanks to all!!
Try the CLR Profiler.
Edit: thought we were in the VB.NET forum for a minute. Might not be what you need then but a profiler is its technical name so you may be able to find something for your language.
The CLR Profiler is nice but it requires the Framework so if the OP is using VB 6 then it may not be present.