Type-syntax and token-syntax in diagrammatic systems

Authors:
John Howse;Fernando Molina;John Taylor;Sun-Joo Shin
Affiliations:
University of Brighton, Brighton, UK;University of Brighton, Brighton, UK;University of Brighton, Brighton, UK;Notre Dame, Notre Dame, Indiana
Venue:
Proceedings of the international conference on Formal Ontology in Information Systems - Volume 2001
Year:
2001

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Abstract

While it is crucial to understand the formal structure of thesemantic domain of an information system, in this paper we raise anontological issue about the syntactic aspect of a representationsystem through a case study on a diagrammatic system. The uptake inthe software industry of notations for designing systems visuallyhas been accelerated with the standardization of the UnifiedModeling Language (UML). The formalization of diagrammaticnotations is important for the development of essential toolsupport and to allow reasoning to take place at the diagrammaticlevel. Focusing on an extended version of Venn and Eulerdiagram(which was developed to complement UML in the specificationof software systems), this paper presents two levels of syntax forthis system: type-syntax and token-syntax. Token-syntax is aboutparticular diagrams instantiated on some physical medium, andtype-syntax provides a formal definition with which a concreterepresentation of a diagram must comply. While these two levels ofsyntax are closely related, the domains of type-syntax andtoken-syntax are ontologically independent, that is, one isabstract and the other concrete. We discuss the roles oftype-syntax and token-syntax in diagrammatic systems and show thatit is important to consider both levels of syntax in diagrammaticreasoning systems and in developing software tools to support suchsystems.