Contrasting Models for Visualisation (Seeing the wood through the trees)

摘要

It is widely recognised that design quality is influenced by the perspective adopted by developers. In the case of formal methods such perspectives are frequently offered by identifying and/or developing appropriate models, from which requirements and systems can be expressed and even verified. In addition, to this there is a growing recognition that selecting and employing a model is an activity which is less dependent upon formal adequacy and more dependent upon ease of use. In this paper we examine and assess factors relevant to design qualtiy that are apparent in comparing two alternative modelign approaches. The specific case study used is that of a system for visualising and manipulating a logical tree.