Abstract

The declarative language Ruby provides a coherent framework for representing and developing designs. Sketching diagrams for Ruby programs by hand is, however, time-consuming and error-prone. This paper describes a design sketcher which automates the production of a diagram from a Ruby description. 1 INTRODUCTION Text-based languages, such as VHDL, 3 are becoming increasingly popular for developing designs. Their popularity is mainly due to their facilities for parametrising designs, and it is a great bonus if both behaviour and structure can be expressed in a single notation. Moreover, pictorial representations such as circuit schematics can be tedious to create and to modify. Providing visual aid in hardware design is, nevertheless, important. Circuit diagrams, when appropriately drawn, make explicit the basic structure and size of components, allowing designers to obtain rapidly an overview of a design and to locate specific parts on which they can focus. There have been attempts ...

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