Electronic Communications of the EASST (European Association of Software Science and Technology)
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Test Case Generation Using Visual Contracts
Get PDFVisual contracts provide a diagrammatic notation for pre- and postconditionsas alternative to the Object-Constraint Language (OCL) or code-levelcontract languages. Using visual contracts for testing, we benefit from their executabilityand formal background in graph transformation to provide model-basedtest oracles and coverage criteria. Based on a static analysis of their dependenciesand conflicts, in this paper we use visual contracts to generate test cases accordingto these coverage criteria.Together with previous work, this adds up to a comprehensive approach aiming toautomate the three major challenges of testing through the use of models
Using antipatterns to improve the quality of FLOSS development
Get PDFAntipatterns have been mostly reported in closed source software environments. With the advent of Free/Libre Open Source Software (FLOSS), researchers have started analysing popular FLOSS projects, seeking vitality indicators and success patterns. However, an impressively high percentage of FLOSS projects are unsuccessful. Moreover, even in the successful cases of FLOSS there can be found tracks of failed attempts, dead-ends, forks, abandonments etc. FLOSS antipatterns can help developers to improve their code and improve the communication and collaboration within the FLOSS community. In this paper, we present some example of FLOSS antipatterns and discuss the benefits that they bring to various FLOSS user roles. Furthermore, we present ontology-based technology and software tools that can be used to assist FLOSS developers and community users to identify, document, share antipatterns and use these mechanisms to assist FLOSS projects conform to specified requirements. Finally, we propose a framework for the quantitative identification of the antipatterns to use as quality indicators in the certification of FLOSS products
Understanding bidirectional transformations with TGGs and JTL
Get PDFIn Model-Driven Engineering bidirectional model transformations emerged as an important ingredient to cope with scenarios such as change propagation, synchronization and to keep consistent system views whenever changes occurring on some view have to be propagated over the others. However, bidirectional mappings open a number of intricate issues that have been only partially solved by research.This paper identifies a set of features characterizing bidirectional transformations and validates them against two existing approaches. In particular, a scenario based on the UML2RDBMS transformation and consisting of two different configurations is implemented by means of two different approaches, such as Triple Graph Grammars and the Janus Transformation Language, for understanding bidirectional transformations with respect to the elicited features
Invited Talk: On the Concurrent Semantics of Transformation Systems with Negative Application Conditions
Get PDFA rich concurrent semantics has been developed along the years for graphtransformation systems, often generalizing in non-trivial ways concepts and resultsfist introduced for Petri nets. Besides the theoretical elegance, the concurrent semantichas potential applications in verification, e.g. in partial order reduction or in theuse of finite prefixes of the unfolding for model checking. In practice (graph) transformationsystems are often equipped with Negative Application Conditions, thatdescribe forbidden contexts for the application of a rule. The talk will summarizesome recent results showing that if the NACs are sufficiently simple (“incremental”)the concurrent semantics lifts smoothly to systems with NACs, but the general caserequires original definitions and intuitions. Joint work with Reiko Heckel, FrankHermann, Susann Gottmann and Nico Nachtigal
Composing Least-change Lenses
Get PDFNon-trivial bidirectional transformations (BXs) are inherently ambiguous, as there are in general many different ways to consistently translate an update from one side to the other. Existing BX languages and frameworks typically satisfy fundamental first principles which ensure acceptable and stable (well-behaved) translation. Unfortunately, these give little insight about how a particular update translation is chosen among the myriad possible. From the user perspective, such unpredictability may hinder the adoption of BX frameworks. The problem can be remedied by imposing a “principle of least change” which, in a state-based framework, amounts to translating each update in a way such that its result is as close as possible to the original state, according to some distance measure. Starting by formalizing such BXs focusing on the particular framework of lenses, this paper discusses whether such least-change lenses can be defined by composition, an essential construct of BX frameworks. For sequential composition, two (dual) update translation alternatives are presented: a classical deterministic one and a nondeterministic. A key ingredient of the approach is the elegant formalization of the main concepts in relation algebra, which exposes several similarities and dualities
A Survey of Triple Graph Grammar Tools
Get PDFModel transformation plays a central role in Model-Driven Engineering (MDE) and supporting bidirectionality is a current challenge with important applications. Triple Graph Grammars (TGGs) are a formally founded, bidirectional model transformation language shown by numerous case studies to be promising and useful in practice. TGGs have been researched for more than 15 years and multiple TGG tools are under active development. Although a common theoretical foundation is shared, TGG tools differ considerably concerning expressiveness,applicability, efficiency, and the underlying translation algorithm. There currently exists neither a quantitative nor a qualitative overview and comparison of TGG tools and it is quite difficult to understand the different foci and corresponding strengthsand weaknesses. Our contribution in this paper is to develop a set of criteria for comparing TGG tools and to provide a concrete quantitative and qualitative comparison of three TGG tools
Evaluation of self-organizing communication mechanisms within a communication platform for disaster management
Get PDFThe request for IT support in rescue missions is getting stronger. In complex situations like Mass Casualty Incidents it is hard to get a good situation report which is essential for proper decisions. The requirements on IT are manifold and the development of reliable systems with networked devices is difficult and long. Additionally the evaluation of a system or its components cannot be limited on tests in some training. This paper describes an evaluation of the communication layer within a prototypical rescue management system developed by the SpeedUp project. The evaluation is done with the help of a simulation where professional and technical aspects are taken into account. Different classical routing mechanisms are compared with an approach using mobile software agents
Reusing Semantics in Visual Editors: A Case for Reference Attribute Grammars
Get PDFThe semantic formalism reference attribute grammars (RAGs) allows graphs to be superimposed on abstract syntax trees. This paper investigates how RAGs can be used to model visual languages, with a case study of a control language that also has a textual syntax. The language contains blocks on which a total execution order is defined based on connections and layout information. One strength of RAGs is reusability, and we demonstrate this by reusing the definition of the execution order in the visual editor to provide semantic feedback to the user
Overview of Hybrid MANET-DTN Networking and its Potential for Emergency Response Operations
Get PDFCommunication networks for emergency response operations have to operate in harsh environments. As fixed infrastructures may be unavailable (e.g., they are destroyed or overloaded), mobile ad-hoc networks (MANETs) are a promising solution to establish communication for emergency response operations. However, networks for emergency responses may provide diverse connectivity characteristics which imposes some challenges, especially on routing. Routing protocols need to take transmission errors, node failures and even the partitioning of the network into account. Thus, there is a need for routing algorithms that provide mechanisms from Delay or Disruption Tolerant Networking (DTN) in order to cope with network disruptions but at the same time are as efficient as MANET routing schemes in order to preserve network resources. This paper reviews several hybrid MANET-DTN routing schemes that can be found in the literature. Additionally, the paper evaluates a realistic emergency response scenario and shows that MANET-DTN routing schemes have the potential to improve network performance as the resulting network is diverse in terms of connectivity. In particular, the network provides well-connected regions whereas other parts are only intermittently connected