Discrete Systems and Flowcharts.

This paper points out the abstract similarities between problems arising in programming, discrete systems analysis in engineering, and network flow problems in operations research. The highly developed techniques of analyzing discrete systems of two terminal elements in electrical engineering become applicable to analyzing the complexity and execution time of computer programs. Similarly, the concept of the cost-oriented flows in network flow problems has significance in determining execution times in program segments. The abstract similarities explored in this paper are predicated on the concept of a flowgraph, which is a dual graph of a more traditional view of a computer program as a control graph. This slightly different view- point of computer programs results in the abstract similarity to discrete systems which suggests many new ideas and permits the use of results from the well-developed fields of electrical engineering and operations research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]