Attribute Graph Grammars with Applications to Hichart Program Chart Editors

Abstract

Summary In this paper, we propose attribute graph grammars and illustrate their applications to structure editors for Hichart program charts. An attribute graph grammar is a context-free graph grammar with attributes attached to each node symbol and semantic rules attached to each production. Attribute graph grammars are defined analogously to attribute grammars. Thus, we can easily apply the results obtained for attribute grammars to attribute graph grammars. To illustrate this, we show that the incremental attribute evaluation technique used in syntax-directed editors also can be used in structure editors for Hichart program charts. Next we demonstrate that the solution of the layout problem of Hichart program charts can be described using attribute graph grammars as the formalism. We will show that an algorithm solving this layout problem can be embedded in the semantic rules of attribute graph grammars in a natural way. This illustration makes the difference between attribute graph grammars and attribute grammars much clearer.