Handling of layout-sensitive semantics in a visual control language

Abstract

We have implemented a prototype editor for a visual language where the semantics depends on layout. A high-level abstract syntax is defined, where these semantics can be captured without the need for storing concrete graphical coordinates. The model implementation is done in JastAdd, a metacompilation tool based on reference attribute grammars. This gives a modular architecture where the core compiler model can be reused for both the interactive editor and the batch compiler.