[erlang-questions] Visual Erlang notation v0.1.0 - feedback request

[Torben Hoffmann]

Vlad Dumitrescu writes:

> Hi Torben,
>
> This is a cool initiative and looks good for a first draft! There are
> always new requirements that pop up afterwards.
>
Thank you!
I wanted to get some early indications instead of spending months in my ivory tower
thinking about how to unleash greatness on the surface of the earth.

Iterative releasing has a greater chance of going somewhere... at least I hope so.

> Is there some documentation for the textual representation?
>
Not yet.

Right now it is too much in a flux to write up a grammar for the textual
representation.
I feel that it is most important to get the visuals down with a rough draft of what
the textual counter part should be and then we can move on to a more rigorous
specification of the textual format.

But I would be interested to hear what would be a good format for the grammar.
Should it be an antrl grammar? Or a PEG for Neotoma? Or???

Cheers,
Torben

> regards,
> Vlad
>
>
>
> On Fri, May 2, 2014 at 9:21 AM, Torben Hoffmann <
> torben.hoffmann@REDACTED> wrote:
>
>> Hi,
>>
>> As I have mentioned before I have been working on a visual notation for
>> Erlang and
>> although it is not complete yet I have received requests to release it
>> anyway, so
>> here goes...
>>
>> https://github.com/esl/visual_erlang
>>
>> One extra thing missing from the to-do list is state data for processes.
>>
>> I would like some feedback on how you feel the abstraction level is.
>> The purpose of Visual Erlang is not to be able to specify every little
>> detail of what
>> happens in an Erlang program, but to give a way to describe the
>> architecture.
>>
>> Once I have updated the Erlang Concurrency Patterns that Jesper and I have
>> been
>> working on to the new Visual Erlang notation we will release them as well.
>>
>> The original plan for the patterns was to use Object-Process Methodology
>> as the
>> notation, but I was adviced (and thanks for that) to invent an Erlang
>> specific
>> notation since OPM has some corners that hurts for Erlang.
>>
>> Right now the only way to draw Visual Erlang diagrams is by hand or use
>> the LaTeX
>> macros I have created, but since Visual Erlang has a 1:1 mapping between
>> the visuals
>> and a textual notation my hope is that we can create a tool that can
>> create a diagram
>> from the textual notation.
>>
>> Going even further I dream of having a tool that extracts the Visual
>> Erlang notation
>> from the code in an interactive manner, where the user can guide what to
>> abstract and
>> what to just leave totally out.
>>
>> Cheers,
>> Torben
>> --
>> Torben Hoffmann
>> CTO
>> Erlang Solutions Ltd.
>> Tel: +45 25 14 05 38
>> http://www.erlang-solutions.com
>> _______________________________________________
>> erlang-questions mailing list
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>> http://erlang.org/mailman/listinfo/erlang-questions
>>


-- 
Torben Hoffmann
CTO
Erlang Solutions Ltd.
Tel: +45 25 14 05 38
http://www.erlang-solutions.com