Source-to-source translation of visual languages
Jukka Paakki, Antti-Pekka Tuovinen · Nordic journal of computing · 1998
In this paper we study the problem of translation between visual languages. Languages with a visual syntax are currently in wide use, due to the popularity of different kinds of diagrams used especially in software analysis, design, and animation. Unlike conventional textual languages, visual languages are still quite immature with regard to the formalisms for their specification and automatic implementation. As a consequence, the current diagram editors are usually implemented with ad hoc solutions on a weak methodological foundation. This makes it hard to develop sophisticated diagram manipulators, such as meaning-preserving transformators between two different styles of diagrams. To overcome this problem, we present a solid method for the transformation between diagrams, or more generally, for the source-to-source translation between two visual languages. The method is based on a mapping between atomic relational grammars for the two languages, and on considering translation as a parse tree transformation process. We also present the underlying technique of producing a parse tree for a visual language specified with an atomic relational grammar.