visual language

visual language (plural visual languages)

1. Those aspects of communication that rely on visual elements, such as illustrations, formatting, gesture, and so on.
   • 1989, Rune Pettersson, Visuals for Information: Research and Practice, →ISBN, page 146:

     However, we also have to learn to "read" and understand the meaning of visual information and the components of visual language.

   • 1998, Charles Kostelnick, David Donovan Roberts, Designing Visual Language: Strategies for Professional Communicators, page 440:

     The designer's task is to make visual language responsive to the rhetorical situation: the audience, the purpose, and the context of the document.

   • 2006, Kärin Nickelsen, Draughtsmen, Botanists and Nature, →ISBN, page 158:

     In order to fulfil this function as a medium of communication, the visual language of botanical illustrations could not differ so much from the conventions of the genre that they became difficult for the audience to understand.

   • 2008, Kanti Lal Das, Anirban Mukherjee, Language and Ontology, →ISBN, page 87:

     In this paper I intend to explore the visual language used in cinema and their connection with human values.

2. VPL (visual programming language); a programming language that allows software developers to generate code by manipulating program elements graphically rather than by specifying them textually.
   • 2001, Reinhard Wilhelm, Compiler Construction, →ISBN:

     A processor for a visual language consists of a graphical frontend attached to phases that analyse and transform the visual programs.

   • 2008, Orit Ziv Shaer, A Visual Language for Specifying and Programming Tangible User Interfaces, →ISBN:

     Also, the XML-based form of TUIML allowed us to precisely and formally define TUIML while adding a secondary textual notation to the visual language.

   • 2009, Dragan Gaševic, Ralf Lämmel, Eric van Wyk, Software Language Engineering, →ISBN:

     UML is a visual language.

   • 2010, Kang Zhang, Visual Languages and Applications, →ISBN, page 167:

     The VPL implementation involves the implementation of a whole programming environment with a user interface which supports developing programs using a visual language.