Visual Programming with Icons

A method to design Visual Programming applications based on a Visual Icon Manager and Editor (VICON) is presented. VICON uses a visual object paradigm to support interactive and dynamic creation of visual representations for objects, processes, menus and commands. Interactive creation and editing of visual object networks (semantic networks) is supported and provides a unified framework for investigating various applications: rapid design of icon/menu- oriented interfaces (UIMS), introduction to hypertext, a geographical map system, a schematics capture circuit editor, a flow chart editor and visual information retrieval.