Towards a formalization of constraint diagrams

Joseph (Yossi) Gil; John Howse; Stuart Kent

doi:10.1109/HCC.2001.995241

Towards a formalization of constraint diagrams

Joseph (Yossi) Gil, John Howse, Stuart Kent

University of Brighton

Research output: Chapter in Book/Conference proceeding with ISSN or ISBN › Conference contribution with ISSN or ISBN › peer-review

Abstract

Geared to complement UML and to the specification of large software systems by non-mathematicians, constraint diagrams are a visual language that generalizes the popular and intuitive Venn diagrams and Euler circles, and adds facilities for quantifying over elements and navigating relations. The language design emphasizes scalability and expressiveness while retaining intuitiveness. Spider diagrams form a subset of the notation, leaving out universal quantification and the ability to navigate relations. Spider diagrams have been given a formal definition. This paper extends that definition to encompass the constraint diagram notation. The formalization of constraint diagrams is non-trivial: it exposes subtleties concerned with the implicit ordering of symbols in the visual language, which were not evident before a formal definition of the language was attempted. This has led to an improved design of the language.

Original language	English
Title of host publication	Proceedings of the IEEE Symposium on Human Centric Computing Languages and Environments
Place of Publication	New York, USA
Publisher	IEEE Computer Society
Pages	72-79
Number of pages	8
ISBN (Print)	0780371984
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1109/HCC.2001.995241
Publication status	Published - 1 Jan 2001
Event	Proceedings of the IEEE Symposium on Human Centric Computing Languages and Environments - Stresa, Italy, 5-7 September, 2001 Duration: 1 Jan 2001 → …

Conference

Conference	Proceedings of the IEEE Symposium on Human Centric Computing Languages and Environments
Period	1/01/01 → …

Keywords

Visual formalisms
software specification
formal methods

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10.1109/HCC.2001.995241Licence: Unspecified

http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/xpl/articleDetails.jsp?reload=true&arnumber=995241&contentType=Conference+PublicationsLicence: Unspecified

Cite this

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title = "Towards a formalization of constraint diagrams",

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Towards a formalization of constraint diagrams. / Gil, Joseph (Yossi); Howse, John; Kent, Stuart.
Proceedings of the IEEE Symposium on Human Centric Computing Languages and Environments. New York, USA: IEEE Computer Society, 2001. p. 72-79.

Research output: Chapter in Book/Conference proceeding with ISSN or ISBN › Conference contribution with ISSN or ISBN › peer-review

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Towards a formalization of constraint diagrams

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