Authors
Robin Abraham, Martin Erwig, Steve Kollmansberger, & Ethan Seifert
Abstract
We introduce a visual specification language for spreadsheets that allows the definition of spreadsheet templates.
A spreadsheet generator can automatically create Excel spreadsheets from these templates together with customized update operations. It can be shown that spreadsheets created in this way are free from a large class of errors, such as reference, omission, and type errors.
We present a formal definition of the visual language for templates and describe the process of generating spreadsheets from templates. In addition, we present an editor for templates and analyze the editor using the Cognitive Dimensions framework.
Sample
The architecture of the ViTSL/Gencel system reflects the observation that the creation of spreadsheets can be conceptually split into two phases:
- A computational schema, or template, is developed, which defines headers, data cells, and computations.
- This schema/template is filled with data, which includes the possible insertion and deletion of rows and columns.
Publication
2005, IEEE Symposium on Visual Languages and Human-Centric Computing, September, pages 189-196
