Visual Programming
SFT 5030
See http://www.monash.edu.au/pubs/handbooks/units/CSE5030.html
Bernd Meyer
bernd.meyer@acm.org
Ph: 9905 2240
Consultation
Clayton Campus, Building 26, Room 115
Wednesdays 11:00-12:00
Caulfield Campus, by appointment
Resources and Literature
Will be made available at
http://www.csse.monash.edu.au/~berndm/SFT5030/
Tutorials
Always:
Labs,
Tuesday, 8pm-10pm
B346B, B348B
Tutor
To be announced
Assessment
100% project-based homework
Implementation project using an object-oriented VPL
°Design Paper (10 %): April 1
°Implementation (60 %): June 3
°Documentation (30 %): June 3
Groupwork in pairs, if necessary one group with n=3
Implementation basis: Prograph CPX
Assignments should be received at identify place and process on or before the due date.
Late submissions will be penalised at the rate of penalty rates.
If you believe that your assignment will be delayed because of circumstances beyond your control
such as illness you should apply for an extension before the due date.
Medical certificates or certification supporting your application may be required.
Prerequisite Knowledge
•Working Knowledge of Object-Oriented Programming
(no particular language)
•Basic Concepts of GUI Programming
(Widget Programming, Event-driven Programming,
Container Hierarchies, etc.)
•Overview of Alternative Programming Paradigms
(as given e.g. in CSE 3322)
Data-flow Programming
Functional Programming
Logic Programming (Introduction in Course)
Cheating
It is important that your solutions to the assignment questions be your own work. It is perfectly
acceptable to seek help and advice when completing the assignments, but this must not be taken to
the point where what is submitted is in part someone else's work.
Please note that, since the assignments are used in assessing your final grade in this subject, the
following Faculty policy applies. "Students should note that cheating is regarded as a very serious
offence which is likely to lead not only to failure in the subject concerned but also to additional
penalties including exclusion. Students should carefully note that the taking of any unauthorised
material into examinations such as notes and unauthorised dictionaries will be regarded as
cheating. Students should also note that essays, assignments and other work are generally
understood to be the student's own work and where such work is identical with, or similar to,
another student's work, an assumption of cheating may arise. Where students wish to undertake
work in conjunction with other students, it is suggested that the matter be discussed with the
lecturer concerned." Faculty of Computing and Information Technology Handbook In addition, the
following School policy applies. "The assignments set in this subject are designed primarily as
learning exercises, but they also contribute to your final grade.
Copying of other student's assignment solutions is unacceptable.
All students have a responsibility to ensure that their assignment solutions are their own work. You
must ensure that others do not obtain access to your solutions for the purpose of copying a part of
them. Where such plagiarism is detected, both of the assignments involved will receive no marks.
In significant cases of plagiarism, action may be taken against the offenders under the University's
disciplinary regulations."
Computing Resources
It is important that your solutions to the assignment questions be your own work. It is perfectly
acceptable to seek help and advice when completing the assignments, but this must not be taken to
the point where what is submitted is in part someone else's work.
Please note that, since the assignments are used in assessing your final grade in this subject, the
following Faculty policy applies. "Students should note that cheating is regarded as a very serious
offence which is likely to lead not only to failure in the subject concerned but also to additional
penalties including exclusion. Students should carefully note that the taking of any unauthorised
material into examinations such as notes and unauthorised dictionaries will be regarded as
cheating. Students should also note that essays, assignments and other work are generally
understood to be the student's own work and where such work is identical with, or similar to,
another student's work, an assumption of cheating may arise. Where students wish to undertake
work in conjunction with other students, it is suggested that the matter be discussed with the
lecturer concerned." Faculty of Computing and Information Technology Handbook In addition, the
following School policy applies. "The assignments set in this subject are designed primarily as
learning exercises, but they also contribute to your final grade.
Copying of other student's assignment solutions is unacceptable.
All students have a responsibility to ensure that their assignment solutions are their own work. You
must ensure that others do not obtain access to your solutions for the purpose of copying a part of
them. Where such plagiarism is detected, both of the assignments involved will receive no marks.
In significant cases of plagiarism, action may be taken against the offenders under the University's
disciplinary regulations."
Questionnaire SFT5030
•Why have you taken this subject?
•What do you expect to learn?
•Which programming languages do you know?
•Have you heard of visual programming languages? Which?
Visual IDEs
(Visual Basic, Delphi …)
Visual Basic is not a VPL!
Private Sub TimerMove ()
Static X As Long, Y As Long
X=X+1
Y=Y+1
'Keep the ball of the edge
If (X > Me.ScaleWidth) Then
X=0
End If
If (Y > Me.ScaleHeight) Then
Y=0
End If
…
End Sub
Visual Computing
Visual
Programming
Computer
Graphics
Algorithm
Animation
Scientific
Visualization
User Interfaces
End User Languages
Prograph
Definition of Visual Programming
Visual Programming Languages :
Languages that use visual notations
or “Diagrams” for
expressing programming constructs,
e.g. Dataflow, Control flow, Abstraction etc.
Subfields:
End User Programming
Domain Specific Programming
Universal Programming Languages (*)
Related Areas
•Graphical User Interfaces
•Computer Graphics
•Information Visualization / Scientific Visualization
•End User Languages (Databases etc.)
•Special Purpose Languages (e.g. UML)
•Algorithm Animation
•Visual IDEs: Visual Basic, Delphi etc.
Toontalk
Literature at http://www.toontalk.com
Goals of this course
•Learn about paradigms in VP
•Learn concrete VPLs in Research and Industry
•Learn implementation techniques for VPLs
•Learn about specification and formalization of VPLs
»Get a feeling for the potential of VPLs
»Learn about the limits of visual computing
…Implement a small project using an object-oriented VPL !
Course Outline
•Unit A: Visual Dataflow Programming in Prograph CPX
•Unit B: Paradigms of Visual Programming
•Unit C: Implementation and Specification of VPLs
•Unit C: Beyond Programming - Diagrammatic Reasoning
Unit A: Prograph
(4 Lectures)
•Overview of Visual Programming Paradigms
•Aspects of Prograph
•Basic Dataflow Programming
•Object-oriented Programming
•Debugging
•Using an Application Framework
•Project work for assignment
Unit B: Paradigms
(5 Lectures)
•Data Flow Languages
Prograph, Labview
•Functional Languages
Clarity, VEX
•Logic and Constraint Languages, Rule Languages
TPM, Pictorial Janus, ToonTalk
•Languages with new Paradigms
Agentsheets, KidSim, Forms3, ToonTalk
Unit B: Implementation / Specification
(2 Lectures)
•Overview of VPL Implementation
•Specification of VPLs
•Visual Language Syntax and Parsing
•Layout of VPLs
Unit C: Diagrammatic Reasoning
(1 Lectures)
•Experimental Systems for Diagrammatic Reasoning
°BITPICT
°Inter-DR
•Diagrammatic Calculi and Diagrammatic Proofs
•Heterogeneous Reasoning
“Proofs Without Words”
b
a
(a  b)  a  2ab  b
2
2
2
“Proofs Without Words”
n
n   2i 1
2
i 1
Example of an Induction Schema
Reasoning by Diagram Transformation
b
a
Diagrammatic “Proof” of Pythagorean Thorem: Circa 200 B.C.
Reasoning by Diagram Transformation
c
b
a
Diagrammatic “Proof” of Pythagorean Thorem: Circa 200 B.C.
Diagrams in Software Engineering
Diagrammatic Refinement
A
B
A
C
C
D
D
C
D
B
Are Diagrammatic “Proofs” for UML possible?
Paradigms of Visual Programming
•Dataflow Programming
Nodes describe operations,
arrows the flow of information between
these nodes
•Rule-based visual Programming
Basis: Logical Implication
“if fact A holds, then fact B holds”
or Production-system like action rules
“if situation A is found, then do action B”
•Functional Programming
Basis: mathematical functions (without side-effects)
a program has the form
f1(f2(f3(... (input) ...)))
Functional Visual Programming
CLARITY (http://www.clarity-support.com/)
Clarity is a complete functional language in the style of ML
original motivation for Clarity was work on the functional database model
An important aspect is the incremental, interactive design of programs
The claim of the Clarity designers
is that visualization introduces an
additional conceptual level.
Rule-based Visual Programming
Universal Programming Paradigms
•Visual Logic Programming (Prolog etc.)
•Visual Constraint Programming (Pictorial Janus, Toontalk)
Programming Paradigms for Programming with Pictures,
particularly visual Simulations
•Production-system languages
pixel-based: BitPict
high-level image based: Agentsheets
(http://www.agentsheets.com)
Visual production systems generally have the form
SearchPicture => Modification
This is interpreted as “if you find the picture
SearchPicture in the current picture then apply the
right-hand side modification to the current picture”
•Can be used for simplified “Programming by Example”
Visual Production Systems
used for implementing computations that directly operate on pictures.
Mainly experimental research vehicle.
Only real-world application: Visual Simulation / Creating Animation
Example:
BITPICT, a system for reasoning purely by diagram transformation.
(For more information visit http://www.si.umich.edu/~furnas/)
The given rules (right) count the number of trees in a “tangled forest”
by reducing each tree to a single dot.
Data Flow Programs
Visual data-flow programming is the most common visual programming paradigm.
We use Prograph CPX as described in
“Visual Programming with Prograph CPX”
by Scott B. Steinman and Kevin G. Carver,
Manning Publications/Prentice Hall, ISBN 0134411633
“The Power of Prograph CPX”
by D. Shafer,
The Reader Network, 1994.
(out of print)
More information on (as well as the implementations of) Prograph can be found at
http://www.pictorius.com/prograph.html
Prograph CPX runs on Windows and will be available in the CA Labs.
Recommended Literature
There are no prescribed texts.
“Visual Programming with Prograph CPX”
by Scott B. Steinman and Kevin G. Carver,
Manning Publications/Prentice Hall, ISBN 0134411633
Is recommended (the only available text on Prograph), but not strictly required.
Other literature (research papers) will be referenced throughout the subject
and are generally available on the web.
For the project you should read the following paper, which will be availble on-line.
Simulating Graphs as Physical Systems, A. Frick, G. Sander and K. Wang in
Dr. Dobbs Journal, August 1999
R. Davidson and D. Harel. Drawing Graphs Nicely Using Simulated Annealing.
ACM Transactions on Graphics, 15(4):301-331, October 1996.
Fruchtermann, T. M. J. and Reingold, E. M. (1991). Graph drawing by force
-directed placement. Software Practice and Experience, 21(11):1129--1164.