Visual notation and patterns for Abstract State Machines

P. Arcaini, S. Bonfanti, A. Gargantini, E. Riccobene. Visual notation and patterns for Abstract State Machines. volume 9949, pages 163-178, DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-50230-4, 11, 2016.

Autoren
  • Paolo Arcaini
  • Silvia Bonfanti
  • Angelo Gargantini
  • Elvinia Riccobene
Editoren
  • Paolo Milazzo
  • Dániel Várro
  • Manuel Wimmer
BuchSoftware Technologies: Applications and Foundations - STAF 2016 Collocated Workshops: DataMod, GCM, HOFM, MELO, SEMS, VeryComp, Revised Selected Papers
TypIn Konferenzband
VerlagSpringer
SerieLecture Notes in Computer Science
Band9949
DOI10.1007/978-3-319-50230-4
ISBN978-3-319-50230-4
Monat11
Jahr2016
Seiten163-178
Abstract

Formal models are a rigorous way to specify informal system requirements. However, they are not widely used in practice, since they are considered difficult to develop and understand. Visualization is often considered a good means for people to communicate and to get a common understanding. We here make a proposal of a visual notation for Abstract State Machines (ASMs), and we introduce visual trees that visualize ASM transition rules. In addition to these graphical components that are based only on the syntactical structure of the model, we also present visual patterns that permit to visualize part of the behavior of the machine. A tool is also available to graphically represent ASM models using the proposed notation.