The Control Structure Diagram (CSD) is a control flow and data structure diagram that is designed to fit into the space that is normally taken by indentation in source code. The intention of the CSD is to improve the comprehension efficiency of source code and, as a result, improve software reliability and reduce software costs.

The purpose of GRASP is to provide this diagram in the context of a full-featured development environment.

GRASP, and in particular jGRASP, has some unique and powerful editing features. The CSD may be edited directly and rebuilt when desired. Building (we say "generating") a CSD is fast enough not to be disruptive (generating a CSD also provides a fast syntax check). The text can be folded based on CSD structure. You can recursively fold up a structure (method, loop, if statement, etc.) with a double click of the mouse, then unfold it level-by-level. Syntax based coloring, selection, and find-and-replace are provided

• The full JDK 1.3 (not the JRE) is required to use the integrated debugger for Java.
• Use of the latest JDK and the HotSpot VM is recommended.

• Java 1.2 or better, except for the Windows JRE version.
• At least 48 MB of memory to run it - there should be no problems with 64 Megs.
• A reasonably fast machine