Tabular Expression Editor
Supervisor: | Dennis Peters |
Student: | available |
Tabular expressions have been shown to be useful for presenting formal
computer system documentation in a concise and readable manner.
Unfortunately, however, most traditional documentation tools (e.g.,
word-processors) require the user to concentrate on both the content and
the format of the expressions simultaneously, which complicates the task
and increases the likelyhood of errors. Also these tools do not lend
themselves to formal analysis of the documentation.
The goal of this project is to produce a tool in at least two distinct
modules:
- Tabular Expression Kernel: This is the foundation on which other
tools will be constructed. It will permit abstract
manipulation of tabular expressions, including storage and retrieval from
disk (possibly in an extensible notation such as XML).
- Tabular Expression Editor Tool: This tool will provide a
user-friendly interface to permit users to enter and edit tabular
expressions. The tool will allow the user to concentrate on the contents of
the expressions without concern for the presentation details. This tool
will enforce adherence to structural rules (e.g., number of operands) and
possibly limited type correctness.
Some main goals in developing these tools will be ease of extension and
portability across diverse operating and development platforms.
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Last modified:
Thu 2000.11.02 at 15:21 NST
by Dennis Peters