Some studies of forced and unforced plane turbulent mixing layers have been conducted using two experimental and two computational approaches. The present paper contains an overall comparison and discussion of the measured and computed results. The experimental results include flow‐visualization data using the smoke‐laser technique and mean flow and turbulence measurements obtained with hot X wires and a two‐component laser‐Doppler velocimeter (LDV). The mean flow and turbulence results indicate that the two experimental techniques agree reasonably well for this shear flow. Two‐dimensional computations of the measured mixing layers have also been conducted in a coordinated effort; one method uses the inviscid discrete vortex technique for a spatially developing layer and the other is based on an approximation to the Reynolds‐averaged Navier–Stokes equations. The vortex method was found to give excellent results for the forced mixing layer while the Reynolds‐averaged computations, with a modified turbulence model, were particularly successful at capturing the near‐field viscous behavior that included the splitter plate wake.