Treffer: A CONSTRAINT-BASED FRAMEWORK FOR DIAGRAMMATIC REASONING.

In the near future, visual and diagrammatic human-computer interfaces, such as those of UML-based CASE tools, will be required to offer a much more intelligent behavior than just editing. Yet there is very little formal support and there are almost no tools available for the construction of intelligent diagrammatic environments. The present paper introduces a constraint-based formalism for the specification and implementation of complex diagrammatic environments. We start from grammar-based definitions of diagrammatic languages and show how a constraint solver for diagram recognition and interpretation can automatically be constructed from such grammars. In a second step, the capabilities of these solvers are extended by allowing to axiomatise formal diagrammatic systems so that they can be regarded as a new constraint domain. The ultimate aim of this schema is to establish a constraint logic language for diagrammatic reasoning applications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Applied Artificial Intelligence is the property of Taylor & Francis Ltd and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites without the copyright holder's express written permission. Additionally, content may not be used with any artificial intelligence tools or machine learning technologies. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)