Supporting Graphical Languages with Structure Editors

Abstract

Graphical editors are used in numerous application fields for purposes like specification, design, modelling, or description of structures of various kinds. These editors handle the graphical representations based on objects that are relevant to the application, rather than editing basic picture elements like line segments or rectangles. The GEGS project is concerned with the generation of object-oriented graphical editors like these from an appropriate specification. The advantage of this is that editing a specification and generating a new editor is much quicker and less errorprone than implementing a new graphical editor. An editor generator also allows adaption to technology changes, generation of application-dependent graphics, individualization to group needs, and experimentation with new graphical languages.