Visual Language Theory

1. Front Matter

   Pages i-xi

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2. Introduction

   • Kim Marriott, Bernd Meyer

   Pages 1-4

3. A Survey of Visual Language Specification and Recognition

   • Kim Marriott, Bernd Meyer, Kent B. Wittenburg

   Pages 5-85

4. Visual Language Theory: Towards a Human-Computer Interaction Perspective

   • N. Hari Narayanan, Roland Hübscher

   Pages 87-128

5. The CCMG Visual Language Hierarchy

   • Kim Marriott, Bernd Meyer

   Pages 129-169

6. Positional Grammars: A Formalism for LR-Like Parsing of Visual Languages

   • Gennaro Costagliola, Andrea De Lucia, Sergio Orefice, Genny Tortora

   Pages 171-191

7. Relational Grammars: Theory and Practice in a Visual Language Interface for Process Modeling

   • Kent B. Wittenburg, Louis M. Weitzman

   Pages 193-217

8. Relation Grammars: A Formalism for Syntactic and Semantic Analysis of Visual Languages

   • Filomena Ferrucci, Genny Tortora, Maurizio Tucci, Giuliana Vitiello

   Pages 219-243

9. How to Represent a Visual Specification

   • Marc Andries, Gregor Engels, Jan Rekers

   Pages 245-259

10. A Fully Formalized Theory for Describing Visual Notations

    • Volker Haarslev

    Pages 261-292

11. On the Isomorphism, or Lack of It, of Representations

    • Corin A. Gurr

    Pages 293-305

12. A Syntax-Directed Approach to Picture Semantics

    • Dejuan Wang, Henk Zeevat

    Pages 307-323

13. Input and Output for Specified Visual Languages

    • T. B. Dinesh, S. Üsküdarli

    Pages 325-351

14. Specification of Visual Languages as Means for Interaction

    • Paolo Bottoni, Maria Francesca Costabile, Stefano Levialdi, Piero Mussio

    Pages 353-375

15. Back Matter

    Pages 377-381

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Kim Marriott Bernd Meyer Communication is one of the hallmarks of humans. When we think of hu­ man communication, most people first think of spoken and written lan­ guages. These are similar in that symbols in the language are encountered and processed sequentially, either temporally as they are spoken or as char­ acters are read across a page. However, not all human communication is sequential in nature. Important components of human communication are visual languages, such as maps or diagrams. In these languages the basic symbols are not encountered sequentially but rather seen together at a glance. Visual languages are ubiquitous in human cultures, ranging from tradi­ tional paintings of central Australian aborigines which are, in part, maps of the countryside to an architect's design of a new building. Visual languages have been employed from earliest pre-history to the present and are used in almost every human endeavor. They cover the entire spectrum of human expression ranging from fine art, such as an abstract expressionist's private language, to precise technical communication using rigorously defined no­ tation, such as musical notation, mathematical notation, or street maps. Some visual languages, such as sign languages used by the deaf community, substitute spoken language entirely. Indeed, sign languages, for example American Sign Language, are a particularly interesting instance of visual communication, since they use three-dimensional spatial arrangements of signs in combination with their sequential temporal order to constitute meaning.

• Syntax
• artificial intelligence
• circuit design
• computational linguistics
• formal language
• grammar
• human-computer interaction (HCI)
• intelligence
• linguistics
• presentation
• semantics

• Department of Computer Science, Monash University, Victoria, Australia

  Kim Marriott

• Lehr und Forschungseinrichtung für Programmierung und Softwaretechnik Institut für Informatik, Ludwig Maximillians Universität, Munich, Germany

  Bernd Meyer

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