Visual grammars and incremental parsing for interface languages

Abstract

A grammar formalism and parsing algorithm for the purposes of defining and processing visually based languages is presented. The work is set in the context of a wider effort to process input sketched on interactive tablets and worksurfaces, as well as to support interface dialogues using these technologies. After outlining the particular demands that these overall goals place on the visual language component, a grammar formalism and an incremental parsing algorithm that use these grammars are presented. A comparison of this approach to others in the field is given.<>