Constraint specification by example in a Meta-CASE tool

CASE tools are very helpful to software engineers in different ways and in different phases of software development. However, they are not easy to specialise to meet the needs of particular application domains or particular software modelling requirements. Meta-CASE tools offer a way of providing such specialisation by enabling a designer to specify a tool which is then generated automatically. Constraints are often used in such meta-CASE tools as a technique for governing the syntax and semantics of model elements and the values of their attributes. However, although constraint definition is a difficult process it has attracted relatively little research attention. The PhD research described here presents an approach for improving the process of CASE tool constraint specification based on the notion of programming by example (or demonstration). The feasibility of the approach will be demonstrated via experiments with a prototype using the meta-CASE tool Diagram Editor Constraints System (DECS) as context

Development of a client interface for a methodology independent object-oriented CASE tool : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science in Computer Science at Massey University

The overall aim of the research presented in this thesis is the development of a prototype CASE Tool user interface that supports the use of arbitrary methodology notations for the construction of small-scale diagrams. This research is part of the larger CASE Tool project, MOOT (Massey's Object Oriented Tool). MOOT is a meta-system with a client-server architecture that provides a framework within which the semantics and syntax of methodologies can be described. The CASE Tool user interface is implemented in Java so it is as portable as possible and has a consistent look and feel. It has been designed as a client to the rest of the MOOT system (which acts as a server). A communications protocol has been designed to support the interaction between the CASE Tool client and a MOOT server. The user interface design of MOOT must support all possible graphical notations. No assumptions about the types of notations that a software engineer may use can be made. MOOT therefore provides a specification language called NDL for the definition of a methodology's syntax. Hence, the MOOT CASE Tool client described in this thesis is a shell that is parameterised by NDL specifications. The flexibility provided by such a high level of abstraction presents significant challenges in terms of designing effective human-computer interaction mechanisms for the MOOT user interface. Functional and non-functional requirements of the client user interface have been identified and applied during the construction of the prototype. A notation specification that defines the syntax for Coad and Yourdon OOA/OOD has been written in NDL and used as a test case. The thesis includes the iterative evaluation and extension of NDL resulting from the prototype development. The prototype has shown that the current approach to NDL is efficacious, and that the syntax and semantics of a methodology description can successfully be separated. The developed prototype has shown that it is possible to build a simple, non-intrusive, and efficient, yet flexible, useable, and helpful interface for meta-CASE tools. The development of the CASE Tool client, through its generic, methodology independent design, has provided a pilot with which future ideas may be explored

A CSP-Based Trajectory for Designing Formally Verified Embedded Control Software

This paper presents in a nutshell a procedure for producing formally verified concurrent software. The design paradigm provides means for translating block-diagrammed models of systems from various problem domains in a graphical notation for process-oriented architectures. Briefly presented CASE tool allows code generation both for formal analysis of the models of software and code generation in a target implementation language. For formal analysis a highquality commercial formal checker is used

Using AToM3 as a Meta-CASE Tool

This is an electronic version of the paper presented at the 4th International Conference on Enterprise Information Systems, held in Ciudad Real on 200

A CASE tool for demonstrating Z specifications

The CASE tool described, is designed to enable software engineers to produce a faithful animation of specifications written in Z. Desirable properties which animations of this kind should possess, and which have guided the authors in developing the tool, are the following: the executable code (i.e., the animation) must be easy to produce; the structure of the code should not be too far removed from the Z; and the animation should be sufficiently user friendly to enable a client to understand and interact with it. The CASE tool is based around the program development tool known as CRYSTAL. CRYSTAL is sold as an expert system shell by Intelligent Environments Ltd. It is essentially a rule-based programming language offering excellent input, output, and menu facilities, as well as all the standard features expected of any expert system shell

Do we really need to write documentation for a system? CASE tool add-ons: generator+editor for a precise documentation

One of the common problems of system development projects is that the system documentation is often outdated and does not describe the latest version of the system. The situation is even more complicated if we are speaking not about a natural language description of the system, but about its formal specification. In this paper we discuss how the problem could be solved by updating the documentation automatically, by generating a new formal specification from the model if the model is frequently changed.Comment: In Proceedings International Conference on Model-Driven Engineering and Software Development (MODELSWARD'13

Perancangan Perangkat Lunak Otomatisasi Pembangkitan Dokumentasi Model Data Konseptual dan Model Data Fisik

CASE Tool merupakan alat bantu dalam perancangan basis data yang memungkinkan untuk melakukan konversi antarmodel data secara otomatis. Kebanyakan CASE Tool komersial hanya menyediakan pilihan menu konversi otomatis antarmodel data. Namun, pada CASE Tool tersebut belum terdapat fitur yang memudahkan pengguna dalam melakukan dokumentasi rancangan basis data yang telah dibuat. CASE Tool yang dikembangkan dalam penelitian ini memiliki fitur dokumentasi yang akan menghasilkan keluaran berupa dokumen yang berisi diagram keseluruhan model data dan keterangan dari masing-masing objek model data. Keluaran dokumentasi ini dapat memudahkan pengembangan perangkat lunak yang memanfaatkan racangan basis data tersebut. Makalah ini membahas mengenai tahapan perancangan perangkat lunak dari pengembangan fitur pembangkitan dokumentasi model data konseptual dan model data fisik yang meliputi perencanaan kebutuhan perangkat lunak dan metodemetode yang digunakan dalam pembangunan perangkat lunak