CEViNEdit: improving the process of creating cognitively effective graphical editors with GMF

The rise of domain-specific (Visual) languages and the inherent complexity of developing graphical editors for these languages have led to the emergence of proposals that provide support for this task. Most of these proposals are principally based on EMF and GMF, which effectively help to simplify a...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Software and systems modeling 2021-06, Vol.20 (3), p.867-895
Main Authors: Granada, David, Vara, Juan M., Merayo, Mercedes, Marcos, Esperanza
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Automation
Compilers
Complexity
Computer Science
Concrete
Domain specific languages
Information Systems Applications (incl.Internet)
Interpreters
IT in Business
Language
Languages
Learning curves
Modelling
Physics
Principles
Programming Languages
Programming Techniques
Proposals
Regular Paper
Semantics
Software Engineering
Software Engineering/Programming and Operating Systems
Syntax
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:The rise of domain-specific (Visual) languages and the inherent complexity of developing graphical editors for these languages have led to the emergence of proposals that provide support for this task. Most of these proposals are principally based on EMF and GMF, which effectively help to simplify and increase the level of automation of the development process of the editors, but it is important to recall that these proposals have some important disadvantages, mainly related to the learning curve of these technologies, poor documentation or the complexity of providing all the customisation possibilities to the user. In addition, in the process of developing a domain-specific language, issues related to graphical conventions have historically been undervalued, while most of the effort has been focused on semantic aspects. In fact, definitions of the concrete (visual) syntax of modelling languages in Software Engineering are usually based on common sense, intuition, the reuse of existing notations or emulation of common practices. In order to alleviate the inherent complexity of the EMF/GMF approach for the development of graphical editors and to support the evaluation of the quality of visual notations of modelling languages, this article presents CEViNEdit, an intuitive tool that simultaneously supports the semi-automatic generation of graphical editors and the assessment of the cognitive effectiveness of the visual notation implemented by the editor.
ISSN:1619-1366
1619-1374
DOI:10.1007/s10270-020-00833-2