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A graph grammar‐based approach for graph layout
Author(s) -
Liu Yufeng,
Zeng Xiaoqin,
Zou Yang,
Zhang Kang
Publication year - 2018
Publication title -
software: practice and experience
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.437
H-Index - 70
eISSN - 1097-024X
pISSN - 0038-0644
DOI - 10.1002/spe.2588
Subject(s) - computer science , flowchart , parsing , graph , programming language , grammar , rule based machine translation , theoretical computer science , clique width , artificial intelligence , natural language processing , line graph , voltage graph , philosophy , linguistics
Summary As a two‐dimensional formal tool, graph grammars are capable of handling the layout problems of visual programming languages. Based on an edge‐based graph grammar (EGG), this paper proposes a novel layout approach that uses the unique features of EGG and overcomes the weakness of existing layout approaches. In order to make the approach rigorous yet concise, the graph grammar mechanisms with layout constraints and quantitative analysis techniques are combined together as an integrity. First, the basic notions of EGG are briefly introduced; second, the layout approach is presented that consists of two phases, ie, bottom‐up parsing and top‐down derivation. Finally, a case study is given by taking the standard flowchart as an example to demonstrate the working process of the proposed approach.