An extensible system for drawing block diagrams

This paper describes a system whose purpose is to accept input in a variety of languages and to produce block diagrams, such as flowcharts, as output. A special feature of the system is its use of syntax directed compilation techniques to process the various input languages. Through the use of incremental compilation, the system is able to offer extensibility of modules as well as extensibility of the entire system. A number of graphic output devices can be utilized. This system has been used to draw flowcharts of programs written in an ALGOL type language, FORTRAN, and a special flowcharting language and draw other diagrams composed of connecting blocks.