Report Number: CS-TR-85-1037
Institution: Stanford University, Department of Computer Science
Title: Expressiveness and language choice
Author: MacKinlay, Jock
Author: Genesereth, Michael R.
Date: January 1985
Abstract: Specialized languages are often more appropriate than general languages for expressing certain information. However, specialized languages must be chosen carefully because they do not allow all sets of facts to be stated. This paper considers the problems associated with choosing among specialized languages. Methods are presented for determining that a set of facts is expressible in a language, for identifying when additional facts are stated accidentally, and for choosing among languages that can express a set of facts. This research is being used to build a system that automatically chooses an appropriate graphical language to present a given set of facts.
http://i.stanford.edu/pub/cstr/reports/cs/tr/85/1037/CS-TR-85-1037.pdf