A machine vision development environment that may utilize a control flow representation (preferably a state diagram representation) to specify and execute machine vision routines (e.g., sometimes referred to as inspection routines). A user may first create one or more machine vision routines using any of various methods. The user may then graphically specify a sequence of machine vision steps or operations, e.g., a machine vision inspection, using a state diagram representation. The state diagram representation may comprise a plurality of icons which represent states with corresponding operations or functions, such as, for example, Load Inspection, Part Ready, Run Inspection, Read Digital Input, etc. The various icons may be connected by wires that indicate control flow transitions, e.g., state transitions, among the states. The state diagram may then be executed to control the machine vision routines.