CONSTRAINT DIAGRAMS - VISUALIZING INVARIANTS IN OBJECT-ORIENTED MODELS

A new visual notation is proposed for precisely expressing constraints on object-oriented models, as an alternative to mathematical logic no tation used in methods such as Syntropy and Catalysis. The notation is potentially intuitive, expressive, integrates well with existing visu al notations, and has a clear and unambiguous semantics. It is reminis cent of informal diagrams used by mathematicians for illustrating rela tions, and borrows much from Venn diagrams. It may be viewed as a gene ralization of instance diagrams.