A reading algorithm for constraint diagrams

Andrew Fish, Jean Flower, John Howse

Research output: Chapter in Book/Conference proceeding with ISSN or ISBNConference contribution with ISSN or ISBNpeer-review

Abstract

Constraint diagrams are a visual notation designed to complement the Unified Modeling Language in the development of software systems. They generalize Venn diagrams and Euler circles, and include facilities for quantification and navigation of relations. Their design emphasizes scalability and expressiveness while retaining intuitiveness. The formalization of constraint diagrams is non-trivial: previous attempts have exposed subtleties concerned with the ordering of symbols in the visual language. Consequently, some constraint diagrams have more than one intuitive reading. We develop the concept of the dependence graph for a constraint diagram. From the dependence graph we obtain a set of reading trees. A reading tree provides a partial ordering for some syntactic elements of the diagram. Given a reading tree for a constraint diagram, we present an algorithm that delivers a unique semantic reading.
Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationProceedings of the IEEE Symposium on Human Centric Computing Languages and Environments (HCC 2003)
EditorsJ. Hosking
Place of PublicationNew York, USA
PublisherIEEE Computer Society
Pages161-168
Number of pages8
ISBN (Print)0780382250
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 1 Jan 2003
EventProceedings of the IEEE Symposium on Human Centric Computing Languages and Environments (HCC 2003) - Auckland, New Zealand, 28-31 October, 2003
Duration: 1 Jan 2003 → …

Conference

ConferenceProceedings of the IEEE Symposium on Human Centric Computing Languages and Environments (HCC 2003)
Period1/01/03 → …

Keywords

  • Visual formalisms
  • software specification
  • formal methods
  • constraint diagrams
  • diagrammatic reasoning

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