A general framework for bi-directional translation between abstract and pictorial data

and Pictorial Data Satoshi Matsuoka Shin Takahashi Tomihisa Kamada 3 Akinori Yonezawa y Department of Information Science, the University of Tokyo 7-3-1 Hongo, Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo, 113 Japan Research and Development, ACCESS CO., LTD. 1-7-1 Sarugaku-cho, Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo, 101 Japan Abstract The merits of direct manipulation are now widely recognized. However, direct manipulation interfaces incur high cost in their creation. To cope with this problem, we present a model of bi-directional translation between pictures and abstract application data, and a prototype system TRIP2 based on this model. Using this model, general mapping from abstract data to pictures, and from pictures to abstract data, is realized merely by giving declarative mapping rules, allowing fast and easy creation of direct manipulation interfaces. We apply the prototype system to the generation of the interfaces for kinship diagrams, Graph Editors, E-R diagrams, and an Othello game. Categories and Subject Descriptors:..

Declarative Programming of Graphical Interfaces by Visual Examples

Graphical user interfaces (GUI) provide intuitive and easy means for users to communicate with computers. However, construction of GUI software requires complex programming that is far from being intuitive. Because of the "semantic gap" between the textual application program and its graphical interface, the programmer himself must conceptually maintain the correspondence between the textual programming and the graphical image of the resulting interface. Instead, we propose a programming environment based on the programming by visual example (PBVE) scheme, which allows the GUI designers to "program" visual interfaces for their applications by "drawing" the example visualization of application data with a direct manipulation interface. Our system, TRIP3, realizes this with (1) the bi-directional translation model between the (abstract) application data and the pictorial data of the GUI, and (2) the ability to generate mapping rules for the translation from example application data and ..