Generating Editors for Direct Manipulation of Diagrams

Diagrams (e.g., trees for hierarchical structures, or graphs for finite state machines) are often needed as part of advanced user interfaces, and are frequently specific to a user’s application. The implementation of editors for diagrams should be supported by a tool and based on a formal model. This paper gives an overview of DiaGen, our generator for diagram editors. An editor for a certain kind of diagram is generated from a specification, which includes a grammar to describe the structure of diagrams. The user of a diagram editor, however, does not have to be concerned with the grammar, but can manipulate diagrams very conveniently by direct manipulation.