Cview, a graphical program generator for the C programming language

The electronics industry has long been a user of graphical design aids. Graphical design tools for VLSI circuits are used to lay out the design, generate data structures for the simulation of the circuit and eventually produce the photomasks for the production of the chip. As such these tools form a working environment that allows an engineer to design, debug and produce a final product. Software design, in general, is still done by writing individual lines of code. At best a macro language or a meta-language will be available to ease the pain of detail coding. While these tools are useful, they are text oriented instead of graphics oriented. It makes more sense to allow programmers to draw regular features of their programs, just as VLSI designers use libraries of common electronic devices. Source code could then be generated from the drawing. A software package, Cview, has been designed and implemented to explore the idea of computer aided software design