Dynamic aspects of visual modelling languages

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Code Generation with the Model Transformation of Visual Behavior Models

There exist numerous techniques to define the abstract and the concrete syntax of metamodeled languages. However, only a few solutions are available to describe the dynamic behavior (animation) of visual languages. The aim of our research is to provide visual modeling techniques to define the dynamic behavior of the languages. Previously, we have created languages to describe animation. In this paper, we describe how these models can be processed by model transformation techniques. We elaborate the main steps of the transformation and show the details as well. We use graph rewriting-based model transformation, therefore we provide a highly generic solution which can be easily modified, and analyzed with the techniques borrowed from the field of graph rewriting. The termination analysis for the presented method is also provided

Aiming for Cognitive Equivalence – Mental Models as a Tertium Comparationis for Translation and Empirical Semantics

This paper introduces my concept of cognitive equivalence (cf. Mandelblit, 1997), an attempt to reconcile elements of Nida’s dynamic equivalence with recent innovations in cognitive linguistics and cognitive psychology, and building on the current focus on translators’ mental processes in translation studies (see e.g. Göpferich et al., 2009, Lewandowska-Tomaszczyk, 2010; Halverson, 2014). My approach shares its general impetus with Lewandowska-Tomaszczyk’s concept of re-conceptualization, but is independently derived from findings in cognitive linguistics and simulation theory (see e.g. Langacker, 2008; Feldman, 2006; Barsalou, 1999; Zwaan, 2004). Against this background, I propose a model of translation processing focused on the internal simulation of reader reception and the calibration of these simulations to achieve similarity between ST and TT impact. The concept of cognitive equivalence is exemplarily tested by exploring a conceptual / lexical field (MALE BALDNESS) through the way that English, German and Japanese lexical items in this field are linked to matching visual-conceptual representations by native speaker informants. The visual data gathered via this empirical method can be used to effectively triangulate the linguistic items involved, enabling an extra-linguistic comparison across languages. Results show that there is a reassuring level of interinformant agreement within languages, but that the conceptual domain for BALDNESS is linguistically structured in systematically different ways across languages. The findings are interpreted as strengthening the call for a cognition-focused, embodied approach to translation

From the Behavior Model of an Animated Visual Language to its Editing Environment Based on Graph Transformation

Animated visual models are a reasonable means for illustrating system behavior. However, implementing animated visual languages and their editing environments is difficult. Therefore, guidelines, specification methods, and tool support are necessary. A flexible approach for specifying model states and behavior is to use graphs and graph transformations. Thereby, a graph can also represent dynamic aspects of a model, like animations, and graph transformations are triggered over time to control the behavior, like starting, modifying, and stopping animations or adding and removing elements. These concepts had already been added to Dia-Meta, a framework for generating editing environments, but they provide only low-level support for specifying and implementing animated visual languages; specifying complex dynamic languages was still a challenging task. This paper proposes the Animation Modeling Language (AML), which allows to model behavior and animations on a higher level of abstraction. AML models are then translated into low-level specifications based on graph transformations. The approach is demonstrated using a traffic simulation

Higher-Order Attribute Semantics of Flat Declarative Languages

A technique is described that provides a convenient instrument for implementation of semantics of simple declarative languages called flat languages. Semantics of a specification is defined in the paper as a set of programs derivable for solvable goals. We introduce higher-order attribute models that include more control information than conventional attribute models and explain the algorithm for dynamic evaluation of attributes on these models. A visual tool CoCoViLa is briefly described as an instrument for implementing attribute semantics of flat languages

A Visual Stack Based Paradigm for Visualization Environments

We present a new visual paradigm for Visualization Systems, inspired by stack-based programming. Most current implementations of Visualization systems are based on directional graphs. However directional graphs as a visual representation of execution, though initially quite intuitive, quickly grow cumbersome and difficult to follow under complex examples. Our system presents the user with a simple and compact methodology of visually stacking actions directly on top of data objects as a way of creating filter scripts. We explore and address extensions to the basic paradigm to allow for: multiple data input or data output objects to and from execution action modules, execution thread jumps and loops, encapsulation, and overall execution control. We exploit the dynamic nature of current computer graphic interfaces by utilizing features such as drag-and-drop, color emphasis and object animation to indicate action, looping, message/parameter passing; to furnish an overall better understanding of the resulting laid out execution scripts

Sign language lexical recognition with Propositional Dynamic Logic

International audienceThis paper explores the use of Propositional Dynamic Logic (PDL) as a suitable formal framework for describing Sign Language (SL), the language of deaf people, in the context of natural language processing. SLs are visual, complete, standalone languages which are just as expressive as oral languages. Signs in SL usually correspond to sequences of highly specific body postures interleaved with movements, which make reference to real world objects, characters or situations. Here we propose a formal representation of SL signs, that will help us with the analysis of automatically-collected hand tracking data from French Sign Language (FSL) video corpora. We further show how such a representation could help us with the design of computer aided SL verification tools, which in turn would bring us closer to the development of an automatic recognition system for these languages

Automating the transformation-based analysis of visual languages

The final publication is available at Springer via http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s00165-009-0114-yWe present a novel approach for the automatic generation of model-to-model transformations given a description of the operational semantics of the source language in the form of graph transformation rules. The approach is geared to the generation of transformations from Domain-Specific Visual Languages (DSVLs) into semantic domains with an explicit notion of transition, like for example Petri nets. The generated transformation is expressed in the form of operational triple graph grammar rules that transform the static information (initial model) and the dynamics (source rules and their execution control structure). We illustrate these techniques with a DSVL in the domain of production systems, for which we generate a transformation into Petri nets. We also tackle the description of timing aspects in graph transformation rules, and its analysis through their automatic translation into Time Petri netsWork sponsored by the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation, project METEORIC (TIN2008-02081/TIN) and by the Canadian Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council (NSERC)