Visual languages: A tutorial and survey

Chang, Shi-Kuo

doi:10.1007/3-540-18507-0_1

Cited by 20 publications

(18 citation statements)

References 23 publications

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“…Rather, it enables the user to make visual the structure of the program-quite a different thing. Chang [2] [2]and, long ago now, Shu [5] [5]also grapple with the world of visual languages, but VSL does not fit easily in either of their taxonomies.…”

Section: Related Workmentioning

confidence: 99%

Visual Structure Language

Campbell¹,

Espinoza²

2001

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In this paper we describe a new language, Visual Structure Language (VSL), designed to describe the structure of a program and explain its pieces. This new language is built on top of a general-purpose language, such as C. The language consists of three extensions: explanations, nesting, and arcs. Explanations are comments explicitly associated with code segments. These explanations can be nested. And arcs can be inserted between explanations to show data-or control-flow.The value of VSL is that it enables a developer to better control a code. The developer can represent the structure via nested explanations, using arcs to indicate the flow of data and control. The explanations provide a "second opinion" about the code so that at any level, the developer can confirm that the code operates as it is intended to do.We believe that VSL enables a programmer to use in a computer language the same model-a hierarchy of components-that they use in their heads when they conceptualize systems.

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Section: Related Workmentioning

confidence: 99%

Visual Structure Language

Campbell¹,

Espinoza²

2001

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“…1,7 Researchers have created interfaces wherein routines for an existing programming language (such as C) are created by a higherlevel VPL. 1,5,6 Interfaces such as these are designed to be used by programmers with knowledge of the structured programming language in question.…”

Section: Previous Workmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…They are best used for routines of lower-to middle-level rank. Higher-level HMIs have also been created for naïve users 1,2,3,4,7 ; however, the scope of any given interface of this type is generally narrow. The addition or major modification of routines controllable by the interface is beyond the abilities of its typical user.…”

Section: Previous Workmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In the past, researchers have created visual programming languages (VPLs) to address the problems of textual coding. 1,2,3,4,5,6,7 However, these interfaces have been, in general, either very high-level and narrow in scope, or low-level and cryptic. Furthermore, these interfaces have not been designed with the specific requirements of real-time programming in mind.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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A human-machine interface for reconfigurable sensor-based control systems

Gertz

Stewart

Khosla

1993

Space Programs and Technologies Conference and Exhibit

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The development of software for dynamically reconfigurable sensor-based control systems is a complicated and tedious process, requiring specialization in real-time systems programming and an amount of time which may not be available, for instance, in a space laboratory. The total development time can be reduced by automatically integrating reusable software modules to create applications. The integration of these modules can be further simplified by the use of a high-level programming interface which can integrate modules developed at different sites. We have developed Onika, an iconically programmed human-machine interface, to interact with a reconfigurable software framework to create reusable code. Onika presents appropriate work environments for both application engineers and endusers. For engineers, icons representing real-time software modules can be combined to form real-time jobs. For the end-user, icons representing these jobs are assembled by the user into applications. Onika verifies that all jobs and applications are syntactically correct, non-ambiguous, and complete. They can then be executed from within Onika, or can be saved as a stand-alone program which can be executed independently on the underlying real-time operating system. Onika can retrieve and use software modules created at other sites with modules created locally. While Onika has been fully integrated with the Chimera real-time operating system in order to control several different robotic systems in the Advanced Manipulators Laboratory at Carnegie Mellon University, it can also function independently of Chimera. Onika will be used in connection with NASA Langley Research Center's Intravehicular Autonomous Robot (IVAR) space manipulator laboratory.

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“…It is important to define simple and understandable icons. If they are misinterpreted, the requirement specifications cannot be understood [6] [4]. We define some basic icons ( Figure 3).…”

Section: Icon Definitionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Icon-based animation from the object and dynamic models based on OMT

Joung

Tanaka

Proceedings. 3rd Asia Pacific Computer Human Interaction (Cat. No.98EX110)

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We propose the icon-based animation of the software requirement specifications by using the object and dynamic models of the OMT methodology. In order to produce the icon-based animation, we use "graphical classes" and "icon transformations." In general, the graphical classes are defined for each class of the object diagram. The icon transformations which show the activities of the application are constructed by considering the meaning of the activities and are defined by either basic or compound icons. The icon transformations are added to the state diagrams to generate extended state diagrams. The animation system generates the header files and the code instantiating GUI from the object diagram having graphical classes. The system also generates "event methods" from the extended state diagrams. When the event methods are executed, the behavior of the events is animated by the icon transformations.

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Visual languages: A tutorial and survey

Cited by 20 publications

References 23 publications

Visual Structure Language

Visual Structure Language

A human-machine interface for reconfigurable sensor-based control systems

Icon-based animation from the object and dynamic models based on OMT

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