Limnor

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Limnor is a generic-purpose codeless and visual programming system. The aim is to enable users to create computer software without directly coding in a texture programming language. It can be extended by software developers. The general idea of Limnor codeless programming is to add "Actions" to classes.

Design

An action is defined by Action-Executer, Action-Data, and Action-Condition. An action has an owner which defines the scope of data available for the action.

There are three types of actions:

• Method-Invoke Action – It is the execution of a method of a class. The Action-Executer is the class defining the method. The Action-Data is the values provided to the method parameters. Method return value can be assigned to a value (a property or a variable).
• Property-Setting Action – It assigns a value to a property of a class. The Action-Executer is the class. The Action-Data is the value provided to the property.
• Event-Firing Action – It fires an event of a class being developed. The Action-Executer is the class. The Action-Data is the values provided to the event parameters.

Action data can be a constant, a variable, a method/event parameter, a property of a class/variable/parameter/property, or a math expression. An Action Condition is a math expression evaluated to a Boolean value. A math expression is a math formula with its variables linked to constants, properties, variables, parameters, and math expressions. A math expression must be displayed and edited graphically for codeless and visual programming and for intuitive using of the programming tools. The math expression programming tool must be able to handle math elements and functions developed by third parties to enable unlimited expansions.

Implementation

Limnor Studio is a newer implementation of codeless visual programming by "properties, methods, events and actions".

Limnor Studio implements "properties, methods, events and actions" on Microsoft .NET types. Software is developed by developing classes, just as all object-oriented programming languages do, but it is done visually. Developers derive new classes from existing classes. The existing classes are from .NET libraries made by any companies or individuals, using any programming languages or programming systems, including Limnor Studio. Limnor Studio compiler generates C# source code from visual programming representations. It uses C# compiler to generate the programming results, EXE or DLL files.

A base class for math functions provides a framework for visually display the math expressions in original math expressions in programming instead of texture formation. For example, developers do programming using formula like ${\displaystyle {\sqrt {(x_{0}-x_{1})^{2}+(y_{0}-y_{1})^{2}}}}$ instead of writing something like Math.sqrt((x0-x1)*(x0-x1)+(y0-y1)*(y0-y1)). A math expression editor may handle math classes derived from the base math class, allowing third parties to develop new math functions to be used visually.

The developers use "action diagram" (flowchart) to form programming logics visually and intuitively.

Visual programming is better done by more than one way. Limnor Studio uses a plug-ins system to allow different visual programming systems to work together. UI designer, which represents classes in UI form and icons, is one visual programming system; object-explorer, which represents classes in tree-views, is another visual programming system. They are totally independent of each other even though they represent and work on the same class being developed. Other independent visual programming systems can be developed and plugged in by implementing certain interfaces, for example, visual data-flow, visual control-flow, UML, etc.

Features

Limnor Studio features include visual creation of all three types of 'Actions', a mathematical expression editor, an 'Object-Explorer', code generation for common web languages, and interoperability with other .NET languages and systems.