@MastersThesis{Klein99,
  author =    {Gerwin Klein},
  title =     {Generating Graphical Editors for Graph-like Datastructures},
  school =    {Chair of Computer Science II, Technische Universit{\"a}t M{\"u}nchen},
  year =      {1999},
  note =      {Available from \url{http://doclsf.de/grace/}},
  abstract =  {Many modern applications favor one or more graphical diagram editors,
of which -- despite their different look \& feel and problem domains -- on a
closer look many have very similar functionality.  Examples are
UML class diagrams, finite automata, electronic circuit diagrams, or
network charts. Their similarity is, that in an
abstract way they all work on, edit and display a graph.

These editors and diagram viewers are mostly implemented by hand.
Although this work is not very often done from scratch but rather
with the help of some object oriented framework, it remains a complex
task with usually high development costs.

This diploma thesis focuses on how the development and maintenance
cost for this kind of graphical editors can be reduced. The problem is
addressed in three steps:

We analyze example applications, extracting and structuring
classes of requirements for graph editors to examine and clearly
define the problem domain.

We develop a description language that allows to define and fully
specify a graph editor in an abstract way. These specifications are
thought to support the analysis and design phase in the development
process. Compared to a full natural language description or a complete
implementation, they are compact, easy to read, easy to communicate
and easy to change.

We take a generative approach to automatically reach a full
implementation of the graph editor defined by such specifications and
discuss important aspects like the integration of generated code into
existing applications and full customizability of generated
editors in more detail.} 
}