Andrew User Interface System as a multiparadigm environment for visual languages

Wilfred J. Hansen, Director, Andrew Consortium, Carnegie Mellon University

Seminar on People, Computers, and Design
Stanford University October 8, 1993

 

Despite numerous innovations in visual languages, relatively little effort has been devoted to integrating visual languages with each other and with textual languages so each can be used for those purposes for which it is best suited. This talk advances a model for multiparadigm language environments which utilizes text in two roles, visual program organization and compiler input. The approach is exemplified with a visual language for specification of string patterns.

The model is best implemented within the scope of a "user interface system." Such a system offers a suite of applications--such as editors for text, drawings, and spreadsheets--integrated so objects created with one editor can be embedded in another and remain "alive". Moreover, the user interface system offers a toolkit for construction of new objects and applications that integrate with the existing one. The talk will describe the Andrew User Interface System and show how it can serve as an implementation of the model for multiparadigm language environments.

 

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