Re: How to describe Flowcharts, Schematics, etc

   
Hi Dave, Karl, Len, Charles etal:

"...(say) a hyperlinked HTML version
for the VI members of the group,..."
What is this version like?  If a blind person tabbed from link to link, what would be spoken by a screen reader (i.e. what is the linked text?)
A static HTML version  would be o.k. for input to a more interactive program but not sufficient for output for blind 
users to gain equivalent access to the underlying information structure.  A good exercise is to try to comprehend a chart/diagram you have not seen before by having it described to you (i.e read aloud) by a friend/colleague, without, of course, looking at it yourself.  The words (labels of nodes) and relational information (e.g. (abstract tree data structure terminology)"is a child of  or (more concretely) for an organizational chart  "works for") goes past your ears.  Visual information allows the viewer to refresh his/her memory simply by focusing her/his eyes on any deisired portion of the picture.  To gain the same flexibility, you would have to ask your friend/colleague, or computer, to read something of interest, at the desired level of detail, again. Thus the need for interactivity.
  -Steve






------
Steven McCaffrey
Information Technology Services
NYSED
(518)-473-3453


>>> "Dave Pawson" <dave.pawson@virgin.net> 08/18 2:16 PM >>>
> The Object Management Group <www.omg.org> has done a lot of work in this area.
In particular, I think their Meta-Object Facility (MOF) and XML Metadata
Interchange (XMI) may be applicable.
>
> MOF is a Meta-Meta-Modelling Language: a syntax and semantics for describing
other meta-models: org charts, schematics, computer systems, whatever. XMI is an
XML format for exporting and importing arbitrary meta-models to and from MOF.
Through XMI, any meta-modeling language could be converted into any other
meta-modeling language.
>
> *In theory* any model could be converted into XMI for storage on a server and
transmission over the Web, e-mail, whatever. A User Agent can parse the XMI to
read the model and present it to the user. To present a different class or set
of models, you develop a meta-model, XML DTD, and XMI transforms. Optionally,
you develop stylesheets for different presentation media.

Now we are talking! <grin/>

I knew there would be other uses for XMI.
I had said if I could draw the flowchart, I can
model it in XML.
Why invent my own DTD when omg have done
it for me.

Love the idea.

Love to see a simple implementation
so that when my colleagues say
can I have a copy, I use the XSL transforms
to convert from the XMI to the graphical
form for sighted colleagues,
and to (say) a hyperlinked HTML version
for the VI members of the group, just
as I do with the rest of the presentation
which is text based!

Yippee.
Love the ideas, now how to select from
the crap set of graphical symbols in
the UML guide graphical set <yuk/>
to use them for
QFD charts, QPD diagrams, system
symbolic diagrams .........

regards, and tks for a great idea, DaveP

Received on Thursday, 19 August 1999 14:22:30 UTC