Formalizing and testing the consistency of DSL transformations

A domain specific language (DSL) focuses on the essential concepts in a specific problem domain, and abstracts from low-level implementation details. The development of DSLs usually centers around the meta-model, grammar and code generator, possibly extended with transformations to analysis models. Typically, little attention is given to the formal semantics of the language, whereas this is essential for reasoning about DSL models, and for assessing the correctness of the generated code and analysis models. We argue that the semantics of a DSL should be defined explicitly and independently of any code generator, to avoid all kinds of complexities from low-level implementation details. As the generated analysis models must reflect some of these implementation details, we propose to formalize them separately. To assess the correctness and consistency of the generated code and analysis models in a practical way, we use conformance testing. We extensively illustrate this general approach using specific formalizations for an industrial DSL on collision prevention. We do not aim for a generic semantic model for any DSL, but this specific DSL indicates the potential of a modular semantics to facilitate reuse among DSLs.     

Interoperable domain‐specific languages families for code generation

This paper has been motivated by experience gained with specification and code generation of control elements for a software component platform and general‐purpose programming language like Java and C. The problem to be addressed is two‐fold: first, several domain‐specific languages (DSL) are to be employed to express different element concerns (architecture, deployment context, code pattern) and second, porting to another general‐purpose language should avoid modification of the specification and related code generation process as much as possible. In both respects, the classical template‐based code generation technique proved to be inflexible, requiring the code generator to be blurred with ad hoc encoded DSL facets. The paper addresses the problem by introducing the concept of interoperable DSL family. Each member of the family is built around its core language, which can be further specialized by embedding into a target programming language. Interoperability of these DSLs is achieved at the level of abstract syntax trees (ASTs) with help of queries. As a proof of the concept, we have implemented the queries via the AST transformation rules of the Stratego/XT framework. In the evaluation, we provide a comparison with the original template‐based implementation, which clearly indicates the DSL family and AST transformation benefits. We also provide examples of application areas where the concept of interoperable DSL family can be employed (and also indicate how this can be accomplished). Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Implementing an embedded compiler using program transformation rules

Domain‐specific languages (DSLs) are well‐recognized to ease programming and improve robustness for a specific domain, by providing high‐level domain‐specific notations and checks of domain‐specific properties. The compiler of a DSL, however, is often difficult to develop and maintain, because of the need to define a specific treatment for a large and potentially increasing number of language constructs. To address this issue, we propose an approach for specifying a DSL compiler using control‐flow sensitive concrete‐syntax based matching rules. These rules either collect information about the source code to carry out checks or perform transformations to carry out compilation. Because rules only mention the relevant constructs, using their concrete syntax, and hide the complexity of control‐flow graph traversal, it is easy to understand the purpose of each rule. Furthermore, new compilation steps can be added using only a small number of lines of code. We explore this approach in the context of the z2z DSL for network gateway development and show that it is beneficial to implement the core of its compiler in this manner.Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

A domain specific language for spatial simulation scenarios

This article describes DSL3S, a domain specific modelling language for Spatial Simulation in the field of Geographic Information Systems (GIS). Techniques such as cellular automata and agent-based modelling have long been used to capture and simulate the temporal dynamics of spatial information. Tools commonly employed to implement spatial simulation models include code libraries and pre-compiled models; the former require advanced programming skills while the latter impose relevant constraints on application scope. Previous attempts to produce domain specific languages in the field have invariably resulted in new textual programming languages (e.g. SELES, NetLogo, Ocelet) that are platform specific and in some cases with weak GIS support and interoperability. DSL3S synthesises relevant concepts of spatial simulation in a UML profile, that allows the design of simulation models through the arrangement of graphical elements. An implementation of this language is also presented, that relies on Model Driven Development (MDD) tools distributed with the Eclipse IDE. This includes a code generation infrastructure, that produces ready to run simulations from DSL3S models, supported by the MASON simulation tool-kit. Finally, DSL3S models for three simple and classical simulations allows to better illustrate and discuss the usage of the language.     

Ontological approach for DSL development

This paper presents a project whose main objective is to explore the ontological based development of Domain Specific Languages (DSL), more precisely, of their underlying Grammar. After reviewing the basic concepts characterizing Ontologies and DSLs, we introduce a tool, Onto2Gra, that takes profit of the knowledge described by the ontology and automatically generates a grammar for a DSL that allows to discourse about the domain described by that ontology. This approach represents a rigorous method to create, in a secure and effective way, a grammar for a new specialized language restricted to a concrete domain. The usual process of creating a grammar from the scratch is, as every creative action, difficult, slow and error prone; so this proposal is, from a grammar engineering point of view, of uttermost importance. After the grammar generation phase, the Grammar Engineer can manipulate it to add syntactic sugar to improve the final language quality or even to add specific semantic actions. The Onto2Gra project is composed of three engines. The main one is OWL2DSL, the component that converts an OWL ontology into a complete Attribute Grammar for the construction of an internal representation of all the input data. The two additional modules are Onto2OWL, converts ontologies written in OntoDL into standard OWL, and DDesc2OWL, converts domain instances written in the new DSL into the initial OWL ontology.     

基于Drools的领域专用语言应用研究

首先介绍了Drools规则引擎和领域专用语言DSL的基本概念,然后通过实例说明了DSL以类自然语言的方式来构建业务层代码,详细阐述了领域专用语言在Drools中的应用来说明它的优点。通过DSL的应用不仅降低了业务逻辑与应用程序的耦合度,而且能以更好的方式来处理业务需求和数据模型的变化,便于系统的维护。     

Enforcement of entailment constraints in distributed service-based business processes

ContextA distributed business process is executed in a distributed computing environment. The service-oriented architecture (SOA) paradigm is a popular option for the integration of software services and execution of distributed business processes. Entailment constraints, such as mutual exclusion and binding constraints, are important means to control process execution. Mutually exclusive tasks result from the division of powerful rights and responsibilities to prevent fraud and abuse. In contrast, binding constraints define that a subject who performed one task must also perform the corresponding bound task(s).ObjectiveWe aim to provide a model-driven approach for the specification and enforcement of task-based entailment constraints in distributed service-based business processes.MethodBased on a generic metamodel, we define a domain-specific language (DSL) that maps the different modeling-level artifacts to the implementation-level. The DSL integrates elements from role-based access control (RBAC) with the tasks that are performed in a business process. Process definitions are annotated using the DSL, and our software platform uses automated model transformations to produce executable WS-BPEL specifications which enforce the entailment constraints. We evaluate the impact of constraint enforcement on runtime performance for five selected service-based processes from existing literature.ResultsOur evaluation demonstrates that the approach correctly enforces task-based entailment constraints at runtime. The performance experiments illustrate that the runtime enforcement operates with an overhead that scales well up to the order of several ten thousand logged invocations. Using our DSL annotations, the user-defined process definition remains declarative and clean of security enforcement code.ConclusionOur approach decouples the concerns of (non-technical) domain experts from technical details of entailment constraint enforcement. The developed framework integrates seamlessly with WS-BPEL and the Web services technology stack. Our prototype implementation shows the feasibility of the approach, and the evaluation points to future work and further performance optimizations.     

Monaco—A domain-specific language solution for reactive process control programming with hierarchical components

In this paper, we present Monaco – a domain-specific language for developing event-based, reactive process control programs – and its visual interactive programming environment. The main purpose of the language is to bring process control programming closer to domain experts. Important design goals have therefore been to keep the language concise and to allow programs to be written that reflect the perceptions of domain experts. Monaco is similar to Statecharts in its expressive power, but adopts an imperative notation. Moreover, Monaco uses a state-of-the-art component approach with interfaces and polymorphic implementations, and enforces strict hierarchical component architectures that support hierarchical abstraction of control functionality. We present the main design goals, the essential programming elements, the visual interactive programming environment, results from industrial case studies, and a formal definition of the semantics of the reactive behavior of Monaco programs in the form of labeled transition systems.     

An approach for the systematic development of domain‐specific languages

Building tailored software systems for a particular application domain is a complex task. For this reason, domain‐specific languages (DSLs) receive a constantly growing attention in recent years. So far the main focus of DSL research is on case studies and experience reports for the development of individual DSLs, design approaches and implementation techniques for DSLs, and the integration of DSLs with other software development approaches on a technical level. In this paper, we identify and describe the different activities that we conduct when engineering a DSL, and describe how these activities can be combined in order to define a tailored DSL engineering process. Our research results are based on the experiences we gained from multiple different DSL development projects and prototyping experiments. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Semi-automated architectural abstraction specifications for supporting software evolution

In this paper we present an approach for supporting the semi-automated architectural abstraction of architectural models throughout the software life-cycle. It addresses the problem that the design and implementation of a software system often drift apart as software systems evolve, leading to architectural knowledge evaporation. Our approach provides concepts and tool support for the semi-automatic abstraction of architecture component and connector views from implemented systems and keeping the abstracted architecture models up-to-date during software evolution. In particular, we propose architecture abstraction concepts that are supported through a domain-specific language (DSL). Our main focus is on providing architectural abstraction specifications in the DSL that only need to be changed, if the architecture changes, but can tolerate non-architectural changes in the underlying source code. Once the software architect has defined an architectural abstraction in the DSL, we can automatically generate architectural component views from the source code using model-driven development (MDD) techniques and check whether architectural design constraints are fulfilled by these models. Our approach supports the automatic generation of traceability links between source code elements and architectural abstractions using MDD techniques to enable software architects to easily link between components and the source code elements that realize them. It enables software architects to compare different versions of the generated architectural component view with each other. We evaluate our research results by studying the evolution of architectural abstractions in different consecutive versions of five open source systems and by analyzing the performance of our approach in these cases.     

基于MetaEdit+的元建模

统一建模语言UML的广泛使用大大提升了模型在软件开发中的作用,以模型为核心的软件开发方法逐渐被人们所接受.但由于UML是作为一种通用建模语言而设计的,它既庞大而又复杂,所以不容易为领域专家所学习和掌握,常常使软件设计人员陷入繁重的建模工作而不能脱身.使用面向特定领域的建模语言DSL(Domain Specific La...     

TRAP:trace runtime analysis of properties

We present a method and a tool for the verification of causal and temporal properties for embedded systems.We analyze trace streams resulting from the execution of virtual prototypes that combine simulated hardware and embedded software.The main originality lies in the use of logical clocks to abstract away irrelevant information from the trace.We propose a model-based approach that relies on domain specific languages(DSL).A first DSL,called TISL(trace item specification language),captures the relevant data structures.A second DSL,called STML(simulation trace mapping language),abstracts the simulation raw data into logical clocks,abstracting simulation data into relevant observation probes and thus reducing the trace streams size.The third DSL,called TPSL,defines a set of behavioral patterns that include widely used temporal properties.This is meant for users who are not familiar with temporal logics.Each pattern is transformed into an automata.All the automata are executed concurrently and each one raises an error if and when the related TPSL property is violated.The contribution is the integration of this pattern-based property specification language into the SimSoC virtual prototyping framework without requiring to recompile all the simulation models when the properties evolve.We illustrate our approach with experiments that show the possibility to use multi-core platforms to parallelize the simulation and verification processes,thus reducing the verification time.     

Domain-specific languages: from design to implementationapplication to video device drivers generation

Domain-specific languages (DSL) have many potential advantages in terms of software engineering, ranging from increased productivity to the application of formal methods. Although they have been used in practice for decades, there has been little study of methodology or implementation tools for the DSL approach. We present our DSL approach and its application to a realistic domain: the generation of video display device drivers. The article focuses on the validation of our proposed framework for domain-specific languages, from design to implementation. The framework leads to a flexible design and structure, and provides automatic generation of efficient implementations of DSL programs. Additionally, we describe an example of a complete DSL for video display adaptors and the benefits of the DSL approach for this application. This demonstrates some of the generally claimed benefits of using DSLs: increased productivity, higher-level abstraction, and easier verification. This DSL has been fully implemented with our approach and is available. Compose project URL: http://www.irisa.fr/compose/gal     

Domain-Specific Languages: What, Why, How

Domain-specific languages (DSLs) are being increasingly used as a realistic approach to address a program family. That is, a set of programs that shares enough commonalities to be considered as a whole. These programs may already exist or be expected to be developed. In this situation, in principle, software development can benefit from introducing a DSL in that (1) it offers concise and specific notations to express a member of the program family, and (2) it enables the development of safe code thanks to its restricted semantics and/or requirements for additional information.The Compose group has developed DSLs for various domains such as device drivers, active networking, and process scheduling, and built some experience in designing and implementing DSLs. In this talk we will report on the outcomes of this line of work. In particular, we will attempt to provide a practical definition of a DSL, and give the conditions to make this approach successful. We will discuss actual benefits of the DSL approach. Finally, we will outline a methodology to design and implement a DSL.     

The Language Evolver Lever — Tool Demonstration —

Since many domains are constantly evolving, the associated domain specific languages (DSL) inevitably have to evolve too, to retain their value. But the evolution of a DSL can be very expensive, since existing words of the language (i.e. programs) and tools have to be adapted according to the changes of the DSL itself. In such cases, these costs seriously limit the adoption of DSLs.This paper presents Lever, a tool for the evolutionary development of DSLs. Lever aims at making evolutionary changes to a DSL much cheaper by automating the adaptation of the DSL parser as well as existing words and providing additional support for the correct adaptation of existing tools (e.g. program generators). This way, Lever simplifies DSL maintenance and paves the ground for bottom-up DSL development.     

Case study: Digital's application generator

One approach to software reuse is to generate an application from a domain specific specification. The specification describes the application's problem or task, and it might take diverse forms, such as an interactive dialogue or a formal language. DECAdmire, an application generator provided by Digital Equipment, is an interactive application development tool that provides code generation for interactive management information-systems that involve relational database updates. DECAdmire provides 80 to 95 percent code reuse     

Developing and evolving a DSL-based approach for runtime monitoring of systems of systems

Complex software-intensive systems are often described as systems of systems (SoS) due to their heterogeneous architectural elements. As SoS behavior is often only understandable during operation, runtime monitoring is needed to detect deviations from requirements. Today, while diverse monitoring approaches exist, most do not provide what is needed to monitor SoS, e.g., support for dynamically defining and deploying diverse checks across multiple systems. In this paper we report on our experiences of developing, applying, and evolving an approach for monitoring an SoS in the domain of industrial automation software, that is based on a domain-specific language (DSL). We first describe our initial approach to dynamically define and check constraints in SoS at runtime and then motivate and describe its evolution based on requirements elicited in an industry collaboration project. We furthermore describe solutions we have developed to support the evolution of our approach, i.e., a code generation approach and a framework to automate testing the DSL after changes. We evaluate the expressiveness and scalability of our new DSL-based approach using an industrial SoS. We also discuss lessons we learned. Our results show that while developing a DSL-based approach is a good solution to support industrial users, one must prepare the approach for evolution, by making it extensible and adaptable to future scenarios. Particularly, support for automated (re-)generation of tools and code after changes and automated testing are essential.     

一种出具证明编译器中的汇编级断言和证明生成的方法

携带证明代码允许代码消费方通过检查代码生产方提供的证明,来判断代码是否满足相应的安全规范.本文实现了一个类C语言的出具证明编译器原型,它在将带有规范标注的源代码编译成汇编代码的同时,还能产生汇编代码满足相应规范的Coq可检查证明,从而保证汇编代码的安全性.本文设计了一种Hoare风格的汇编级验证框架,并在此框架下提出并实现一种新的自动生成汇编级断言和证明的方法.