A Normal Form for Spider Diagrams of Order

We develop a reasoning system for an Euler diagram based visual logic, called spider diagrams of order. We de- fine a normal form for spider diagrams of order and provide an algorithm, based on the reasoning system, for producing diagrams in our normal form. Normal forms for visual log- ics have been shown to assist in proving completeness of associated reasoning systems. We wish to use the reasoning system to allow future direct comparison of spider diagrams of order and linear temporal logic

The Semiotics of Spider Diagrams

Spider diagrams are based on Euler and Venn/Peirce diagrams, forming a system which is as expressive as monadic first orderlogic with equality. Rather than being primarily intended for logicians,spider diagrams were developed at the end of the 1990s in the context of visual modelling and software specification. We examine the original goals of the designers, the ways in which the notation has evolved and itsconnection with the philosophical origins of the logical diagrams of Euler, Venn and Peirce on which spider diagrams are based. Using Peirce's concepts and classification of signs, we analyse the ways in which different sign types are exploited in the notation. Our hope is that this analysis may be of interest beyond those readers particularly interested in spider diagrams, and act as a case study in deconstructing a simple visual logic. Along the way, we discuss the need for a deeper semiotic engagement in visual modelling

Equivalences in Euler-based diagram systems through normal forms

AbstractThe form of information presented can influence its utility for the conveying of knowledge by affecting an interpreter’s ability to reason with the information. There are distinct types of representational systems (for example, symbolic versus diagrammatic logics), various sub-systems (for example, propositional versus predicate logics), and even within a single representational system there may be different means of expressing the same piece of information content. Thus, to display information, choices must be made between its different representations, depending upon many factors such as: the context, the reasoning tasks to be considered, user preferences or desires (for example, for short symbolic sentences or minimal clutter within diagrammatic systems). The identification of all equivalent representations with the same information content is a sensible precursor to attempts to minimise a metric over this class. We posit that defining notions of semantic redundancy and identifying the syntactic properties that encapsulate redundancy can help in achieving the goal of completely identifying equivalences within a single notational system or across multiple systems, but that care must be taken when extending systems, since refinements of redundancy conditions may be necessary even for conservative system extensions. We demonstrate this theory within two diagrammatic systems, which are Euler-diagram-based notations. Such notations can be used to represent logical information and have applications including visualisation of database queries, social network visualisation, statistical data visualisation, and as the basis of more expressive diagrammatic logics such as constraint languages used in software specification and reasoning. The development of the new associated machinery and concepts required is important in its own right since it increases the growing body of knowledge on diagrammatic logics. In particular, we consider Euler diagrams with shading, and then we conservatively extend the system to include projections, which allow for a much greater degree of flexibility of representation. We give syntactic properties that encapsulate semantic equivalence in both systems, whilst observing that the same semantic concept of redundancy is significantly more difficult to realise as syntactic properties in the extended system with projections.</jats:p

Fragments of Spider Diagrams of Order and their Relative Expressiveness

Investigating the expressiveness of a diagrammatic logic provides insight into how its syntactic elements interact at the semantic level. Moreover, it allows for comparisons with other notations. Various expressiveness results for diagrammatic logics are known, such as the theorem that Shin's Venn-II system is equivalent to monadic first order logic. The techniques employed by Shin for Venn-II were adapted to allow the expressiveness of Euler diagrams to be investigated. We consider the expressiveness of spider diagrams of order (SDoO), which extend spider diagrams by including syntax that provides ordering information between elements. Fragments of SDoO are created by systematically removing each aspect of the syntax. We establish the relative expressiveness of the various fragments. In particular, one result establishes that spiders are syntactic sugar in any fragment that contains order, negation and shading. We also show that shading is syntactic sugar in any fragment containing negation and spiders. The existence of syntactic redundancy within the spider diagram of order logic is unsurprising however, we find it interesting that spiders or shading are redundant in fragments of the logic. Further expressiveness results are presented throughout the paper. The techniques we employ may well extend to related notations, such as the Euler/Venn logic of Swoboda et al. and Kent's constraint diagrams

Spider Diagrams of Order

Spider diagrams are a visual logic capable of makeing statements about relationships between sets and their cardinalities. Various meta-level results for spider diagrams have been established, including their soundness, completeness and expressiveness. Recent work has established various relationships between spider diagrams and regular languages, which highlighted various classes of languages that spider diagrams could not define. In particular, this work illustrated the inability of spider diagrams to place an order on certain letters in words. To overcome this limitation, in this paper we introduce spider diagrams of order, incorporating an order relation and present a formalisation of the syntax and semantics. Subsequently, we define the language of such a diagram and establish that the class of such languages includes that of the piecewise testable languages.

Defining star-free regular languages using diagrammatic logic

Spider diagrams are a recently developed visual logic that make statements about relationships between sets, their members and their cardinalities. By contrast, the study of regular languages is one of the oldest active branches of computer science research. The work in this thesis examines the previously unstudied relationship between spider diagrams and regular languages. In this thesis, the existing spider diagram logic and the underlying semantic theory is extended to allow direct comparison of spider diagrams and star-free regular languages. Thus it is established that each spider diagram defines a commutative star-free regular language. Moreover, we establish that every com- mutative star-free regular language is definable by a spider diagram. From the study of relationships between spider diagrams and commutative star-free regular languages, an extension of spider diagrams is provided. This logic, called spider diagrams of order, increases the expressiveness of spider di- agrams such that the language of every spider diagram of order is star-free and regular, but not-necessarily commutative. Further results concerning the expres- sive power of spider diagrams of order are gained through the use of a normal form for the diagrams. Sound reasoning rules which take a spider diagram of order and produce a semantically equivalent diagram in the normal form are pro- vided. A proof that spider diagrams of order define precisely the star-free regular languages is subsequently presented. Further insight into the structure and use of spider diagrams of order is demonstrated by restricting the syntax of the logic. Specifically, we remove spiders from spider diagrams of order. We compare the expressiveness of this restricted fragment of spider diagrams of order with the unrestricted logic.EThOS - Electronic Theses Online ServiceGBUnited Kingdo

Spider diagrams of order and a hierarchy of star-free regular languages

The spider diagram logic forms a fragment of the constraint diagram logic and was designed to be primarily used as a diagrammatic software specification tool. Our interest is in using the logical basis of spider diagrams and the existing known equivalences between certain logics, formal language theory classes and some automata to inform the development of diagrammatic logics. Such developments could have many advantages, one of which would be aiding software engineers who are familiar with formal languages and automata to more intuitively understand diagrammatic logics. In this paper we consider relationships between spider diagrams of order (an extension of spider diagrams) and the star-free subset of regular languages. We extend the concept of the language of a spider diagram to encompass languages over arbitrary alphabets. Furthermore, the product of spider diagrams is introduced. This operator is the diagrammatic analogue of language concatenation. We establish that star-free languages are definable by spider diagrams of order equipped with the product operator and, based on this relationship, spider diagrams of order are as expressive as first order monadic logic of order