An empirical comparison of textual and graphical data structure documentation for Cobol programs

The author presents the results of an experimental investigation into the comparative usefulness of textual tools and graphical tools for the program understanding phase of Cobol program maintenance. Both novice and experienced programmers are used as subjects. The results show a slight superiority for graphical tools when they are used by less experienced programmers. They cast doubt on the importance of rigid adherence to program design methodologies for experienced programmers and on the extensibility of experiments using relatively inexperienced student subjects