Visual programming using graphics, relations, and classes

Visual programming techniques have proven successful within limited domains. However, little progress has been made in using graphics to support "real-world" programming. The GRClass system provides a solution by combining Graphics, Relations, and Classes to provide a visual interface for programming graph data structures within an object-oriented framework. This is done by extending the object-oriented model with inter-object relations. These relations are then used to directly implement the conceptual model of the graph data structures. Within the GRClass framework, data structures are objects that maintain relation tables. These relations and the objects participating in the relations constitute the form of the data structure. A graphical notation is used to specify the possible relations and to manipulate the relation graph. GRClass is implemented within the Andrew Toolkit programming environmentThis thesis discusses the motivation for visual programming languages and the GRClass language in particular, presents examples of data structures programmed using GRClass, discusses the implementation of the user interface and code generator, and finally presents some topics for future research.U of I OnlyETDs are only available to UIUC Users without author permissio