DATA VIEWS, DATA RECOGNITION, DESIGN QUERIES AND DESIGN RULES Representational flexibility for design

Sorts present a constructive approach to representational structures and provide a uniform approach to handling various design data. In this way, sorts offer support for multiple, alternative data views and for data exchange between these views. The representation of sorts extends on a maximal element representation for shapes that supports shape recognition and shape rules. In the same way, sorts offer support for data recognition, for querying design information and for expressing design rules. In this paper, we present an overview of the use of sorts to support these functionalities. Each of these relies on the ability to alter representational structures or sorts, and to manipulate the composition of data forms. In this regard, we briefly consider the user interaction aspect of utilizing sorts.