Visual Language Theory
By: edited by Kim Marriott, Bernd Meyer
Contributors: Meyer, Bernd
Publisher: Springer New York; Imprint; Springer
Published: 1998
Place of publication: New York, NY
Language: eng
Format: [electronic resource] /
Number of pages: 381
ISBN-13: 9781461216766
Description: Visual languages are ubiquitous in human cultures and range from informal ambiguous sketches to rigorously defined technical diagrams such as electronic circuit designs or musical notation. They have become a key component of human-computer interaction with the advent of GUIs and sophisticated input devices. This book provides a broad-ranging survey of our current understanding of visual languages and their theoretical foundations. Its main focus is the definition, specification, and structural analysis of visual languages by grammars, logic, and algebraic methods and the use of these techniques in visual language implementation. Consequently, the researcher in formal language theory, HCI, artificial intelligence, and computational linguistics will find this an invaluable guide to the current state of research in this field.
Table of contents: title: Visual language specification; title: Visual language theory; title: Towards a hierarchy of visual languages; title: Positional grammars; title: Relational grammars; title: Using graph grammars to represent visual programs; title: A fully formalized logic theory for describing visual notations; title: Visual language syntax and semantics; title: On the isomporphism of representations; title: A snytax directed approach to picture semantics; title: Specifying input and output of visual languages; title: Specification of visual languages as means of interaction; title: Appendix.