Multi-iconic multi-interpretation computation: a medical case

A system for visual programming of simulation experiments is presented. The models to be simulated are networks of functional units which transform matter flowing along channels. The models can be abstractly described as graphs specifying the computational organization of the system to be simulated. Users generate a simulation program in the form of a complex icon; the system automatically generates the internal form of the abstract graph describing the structure of the logical part of the icon. To execute an experiment the logical part is instantiated by binding the implementation of methods realizing the model to nodes of the graph. The program is then executed under the control of the user. A set of libraries allows the representation of the system organization to be decoupled from the methods which have to compute the simulation. Thus, the system allows multi-iconicity (the possibility of managing different sets of icons) and multi-interpretation (the possibility of trying different computational models on the same visual program)