Considerations in developing a formally-based visual programming language reference manual
Debbie K. Carter, Albert D. Baker · ACM SIGPLAN Notices · 1997
A language reference manual provides a definitive document containing complete and accurate details about the legality and meaning of the language's constructs. Some key decisions in writing a language reference manual are how to specify syntax, how to specify semantics, and how to structure the manual. Some of these components to a language reference manual have been active areas of research in the visual programming language community. The specific issue of how to put these together into a language reference manual has not been a strong part of this discussion. This paper reviews the recent research on specification methods and language presentation, and evaluates these methods for use within a visual programming language reference manual. The suggested specification that results from the evaluation is tested using SLAM II, a visually oriented queuing network simulation language which has enjoyed wide commercial use since its introduction in 1979.