Sharp Corp has developed Chatran, a computer-aided applications development system that generates a program automatically from a flowchart: the program runs under Unix on 32-bit workstations and will be used in-house for microcomputer software development; once the flowchart has been drawn on the screen according to the system specification, it is run through an internal database and the software then produces in real time a Fortran, C or Assembler program, correcting syntax as it goes, and it is claimed to increase productivity by a factor of 10; a refined version for evaluation by a software house should be ready in about a year from now.
