“a ‘physics’ of notations”?
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“A ‘Physics’ of Notations”?. Ideas of Daniel L. Moody Presented by J. David Andrews Ph.D. Candidate School of Computing. Main Reference. The “Physics” of Notations: Toward a Scientific Basis for Constructing Visual Notations - PowerPoint PPT PresentationTRANSCRIPT
“A ‘Physics’ of Notations”?Ideas of Daniel L. Moody
Presented byJ. David AndrewsPh.D. Candidate
School of Computing
“A ‘Physics’ of Notations”? 2
Main Reference
• The “Physics” of Notations: Toward a Scientific Basis for Constructing Visual Notations
Software Engineering, IEEE Transactions On Software Engineering, VOL. 35, NO. 6, November/December 2009
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UML
• UML as a communication medium.• Strongly visual at top level.• Two Medium/Large scale projects that used
UML (Rational).– One poorly.– One well.
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Poor Use• UML used as document production system.• Communication to non-developers:– Used Rational Rose as documentation system– For MIL-STD paper documentation.
• Communication to developers.– Ill-conceived class hierarchy.– Forced OO on objects ill-suited for it.
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I’m not even written in an OO Language!
Hello up there! We the classes need to be redesigned.
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Good Use
• Good communication to non-technical people.– Use cases.– Rapid prototypes.– Etc.
• Well conceived UML diagrams.• Not infected with ‘UML fever’. Death by UML
Fever, ALEX E. BELL, THE BOEING COMPANY’.
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My Initial Reaction
• Quite negative.• In the ‘good old days’ …– Fetzer: Program Verification: The Very Idea,
Communications of the ACM, Volume 31 Issue 9, Sept. 1988, Pages 1048 - 1063 – What some readers thought he said: “software
verification is worthless”.– What Fetzer said, “however much software
verification one does, the hardware is still subject to failure.”
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Physics?
• Let’s ask a physicist.
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Pseudoscience.
But good pseudoscience.
And needed pseudoscience.
Physics here is a metaphor.
For a systematic theory of picture-based communication.
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Semiotics/Ontology
• Huh?• Signs
• Reality
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What do signs give us?
• By themselves?• Not much …
• Used intelligently?• More, obviously …• But how much more?
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Towards
• Moody is saying:– We aren’t there yet.– But we want to be.– And here are some ideas to consider.
• Ideas often best formulated by …– People we tend to dismiss as pseudoscientists.
• So I’ll let Moody speak. In his own pictures.
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• Focus:
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• Visual Dialects
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• Ontological Analysis
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Essential for good communication.
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• Communication
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Color left out of UML for political correctness.
But why should ‘color’ be rendered by color?
Or ‘texture’ by visual texture?
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Solution Space
Principles
Extensible solution
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Perceptual Discrimination
• Visual Distance• Shape (prime importance).• Redundant Coding• Perceptual Popout• Textual Discrimination
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Semiotic Clarity
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Semantic Transparency
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Manageable Complexity
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Cognitive Integration
For example:
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Visual Expressiveness
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Dual Coding Text and Graphics
…
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Graphic Economy
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Cognitive Fit
For different kinds of users
With different skill levels.
Etc.
Images from Wikipedia
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Thank you!
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