Visual composition of software applications
Vicki de Mey · 1995
Abstract Open applications can be viewed as compositions of reusable and configurable components. We introduce visual composition as a way of constructing applications from plug-compatible software components. After presenting related work, we describe an object-oriented framework for visual composition that supports open system development through the notion of domain-specific composition models. We illustrate the use of the framework through the application of a prototype implementation to a number of very different domains. In each case, a specialized visual composition tool was realized by developing a domain-specific composition model. We conclude with some remarks and observations concerning component engineering and application composition in a context where visual composition is an essential part of the development process. We define visual composition as the interactive construction of running applications by the direct manipulation and interconnection of visually presented software components.