Visual design and programming for Web applications

With the development of the information society, it has become necessary to release software early that satisfies users. Therefore, it has become important to develop the software quickly so that the users can try it, and give the developers feedback. Recently, instead of the conventional water-fall-model development, new development techniques such as aspect-oriented programming have been researched. The software development techniques that make use of graphics have also been researched in a variety of fields. This paper presents the image-oriented programming method that uses graphics as a tool of designing software, and enables users to easily develop software according to their image of what they want to develop. It also describes the BioPro system that implements this method for Web applications. The BioPro system has the following features; (1) users can develop programs according to their image, (2) they can easily verify the completeness of components that make up the program and the consistency of those relationships, and (3) they can easily confirm what they have developed, regardless of which stage of development they are currently at. (c) 2004 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.