Introduction to the CSD - Unit and Data Symbols

The CSD unit symbols, which are patterned after the unit symbols popularized by Grady Booch, provide the user of the CSD the option of specializing the program unit identified by the CSD. The unit symbols may be used either independently or in conjunction with the box symbols, as was shown on the overview page of this introduction. The unit symbols may not be becessary for a beginning Java programmer, but as programs increase in size and complexity the CSD unit symbols will be useful in aiding visualization of the program units contained in the source code.


The symbol on the left, above, identifies abstract methods, while its shaded counterpart identifies any non-abstract methods.


This pair of symbols represents classes in Java. The clear symbol, on the left, identifies abstract classes, while the shaded symbol, on the right, identifies any non-abstract classes.


The box with the exclamation point in it is used to denote exception handlers, and is associated with the catch and finally keywords.


The open ellipse in the above image is used to denote a type declaration. The darkened ellipse denotes a variable declaration.


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