GENGED: visual definition of visual languages

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Master Ittei emphasized the importance of harmony in calligraphy, a principle that appears distant in today's software modeling and specification landscape. To address this, we developed the GENGED environment, aimed at simplifying and enhancing the reliability of software modeling. By enabling the visual definition of languages and generating appropriate editors, GENGED seeks to foster greater harmony in software development. The primary objective of this work is to support various visual languages used in software engineering and programming. Visual programming languages, often integrated with visual environments, require costly re-implementations when visual expressions change. GENGED aims to mitigate this by providing generators for visual environments. The environment facilitates the visual definition of languages, allowing for the creation of visual language specifications that serve as parameters for editors to manipulate visual sentences. These languages extend beyond programming to include diagrammatic, iconic, and form-based languages for modeling, specification, and even educational purposes. While the focus is on defining visual syntax, a distinction between abstract and concrete syntax is made, paving the way for future semantic definitions. The visual language specification comprises an alphabet represented by an algebraic graph signature and a grammar expressed through an algebraic graph grammar, with grammar pr