A.: A Conceptual Graph Approach to Support Multiperspective Development Environments (1998) [2 citations — 1 self]
Abstract:
This paper demonstrates an application of Conceptual Graphs (CGs) in the area of software engineering. We employ CGs as a meta-representation language to enhance consistency checking within a multiperspective development environment, i.e. one which employs and utilises a number of ViewPoints. We have built a ViewPoint-based prototype called the √iewer+CG to show such application of CGs. A ViewPoint is a loosely coupled, locally managed, self-contained object. It encapsulates representation knowledge, development knowledge, and specification knowledge of a problem domain. ViewPoints constitute partial specifications which can be independently constructed by a group of developers. Thus a complex and large-scale application can be decomposed into, and jointly managed as, a collection of ViewPoints. Partitioning development tasks and specifications in this manner necessitates a consistency checking procedure to ensure that the ViewPoints can consistently work as an 'integrated ' whole. The difficulties in constructing such procedure arise from the diversity of ViewPoint representation styles. We employ CGs to provide meta-representation of ViewPoints. As CGs form a strong basis for logical reasoning, we are able to use the resulting concepts and relations from the metarepresentation to establish consistency checking rules within and across ViewPoints. By abstracting a ViewPoint specification up one level to CGs, we are able to augment a ViewPointsbased environment with an automated consistency checking procedure which is independent of ViewPoint representation styles.
