A Constraint-based Approach for Generating Transformation Patterns

Undoing operations is an indispensable feature for many collaborative applications, mainly collaborative editors. It provides the ability to restore a correct state of shared data after erroneous operations. In particular, selective undo allows to undo any operation and is based on rearranging operations in the history thanks to the Operational Transformation (OT) approach. OT is an optimistic replication technique allowing for updating the shared data concurrently while maintaining convergence. It is a challenging task how to meaningfully combine OT and undo approaches. Indeed, undoing operations that are received and executed out-of-order at different sites leads to divergence cases. Even though various undo solutions have been proposed over the recent years, they are either limited or erroneous. In this paper, we propose a constraint-based approach to address the undo problem. We use Constraint Satisfaction Problem (CSP) theory to devise correct and undoable transformation patterns (w.r.t OT and undo properties) which considerably simplifies the design of collaborative objects.Comment: In Proceedings FOCLASA 2015, arXiv:1512.0694

Compensation methods to support generic graph editing: A case study in automated verification of schema requirements for an advanced transaction model

Compensation plays an important role in advanced transaction models, cooperative work, and workflow systems. However, compensation operations are often simply written as a^−1 in transaction model literature. This notation ignores any operation parameters, results, and side effects. A schema designer intending to use an advanced transaction model is expected (required) to write correct method code. However, in the days of cut-and-paste, this is much easier said than done. In this paper, we demonstrate the feasibility of using an off-the-shelf theorem prover (also called a proof assistant) to perform automated verification of compensation requirements for an OODB schema. We report on the results of a case study in verification for a particular advanced transaction model that supports cooperative applications. The case study is based on an OODB schema that provides generic graph editing functionality for the creation, insertion, and manipulation of nodes and links

Compensation methods to support cooperative applications: A case study in automated verification of schema requirements for an advanced transaction model

Compensation plays an important role in advanced transaction models, cooperative work and workflow systems. A schema designer is typically required to supply for each transaction another transaction to semantically undo the effects of . Little attention has been paid to the verification of the desirable properties of such operations, however. This paper demonstrates the use of a higher-order logic theorem prover for verifying that compensating transactions return a database to its original state. It is shown how an OODB schema is translated to the language of the theorem prover so that proofs can be performed on the compensating transactions

Maude: specification and programming in rewriting logic

Maude is a high-level language and a high-performance system supporting executable specification and declarative programming in rewriting logic. Since rewriting logic contains equational logic, Maude also supports equational specification and programming in its sublanguage of functional modules and theories. The underlying equational logic chosen for Maude is membership equational logic, that has sorts, subsorts, operator overloading, and partiality definable by membership and equality conditions. Rewriting logic is reflective, in the sense of being able to express its own metalevel at the object level. Reflection is systematically exploited in Maude endowing the language with powerful metaprogramming capabilities, including both user-definable module operations and declarative strategies to guide the deduction process. This paper explains and illustrates with examples the main concepts of Maude's language design, including its underlying logic, functional, system and object-oriented modules, as well as parameterized modules, theories, and views. We also explain how Maude supports reflection, metaprogramming and internal strategies. The paper outlines the principles underlying the Maude system implementation, including its semicompilation techniques. We conclude with some remarks about applications, work on a formal environment for Maude, and a mobile language extension of Maude