Diagram Control and Model Order for Sugiyama Layouts

TL;DR

This paper introduces the concept of model order to improve automatic diagram layout, enabling control over secondary notation like proximity and topology in graphical programming languages.

Contribution

It presents a novel approach to incorporate model order into automatic layout, demonstrated with SCCharts and Lingua Franca, and offers a guide for extracting such configurations for other languages.

Findings

Model order can effectively control diagram layout.

Application to SCCharts and Lingua Franca shows practical benefits.

Guidelines provided for extracting model order configurations.

Abstract

Graphical WYSIWYG editors programming languages are popular since they allow to control the diagram layout to express intention via secondary notation such as proximity and topology. However, such editors typically require users to do manual layout. Conversely, automatic layout of diagrams typically fails to capture intention because graphs are usually considered to not contain any order. Model order can combine the desire for control of secondary notation with automatic layout, without additional overhead, since the textual model already employs secondary notation. We illustrate how model order can exert control on the example of programming languages SCCharts and Lingua Franca. We also propose a first guidebook how such model order configurations can be extracted for other programming languages with a graphical notation.