Systematic use of models of concurrency in executable domain-specific modelling languages

Language-Oriented Programming (LOP) advocates designing eXecutable Domain-Specific Modeling Languages (xDSMLs) to facilitate the design, development, verification and validation of modern softwareintensive and highly-concurrent systems. These systems place their needs of rich concurrency constructs at the heart of modern software engineering processes. To ease theirdevelopment, theoretical computer science has studied the use of dedicated paradigms for the specification of concurrent systems, called Models of Concurrency (MoCs). They enable the use of concurrencyaware analyses such as detecting deadlocks or starvation situations, but are complex to understand and master. In this thesis, we develop and extend an approach that aims at reconciling LOP and MoCs by designing so-called Concurrencyaware xDSMLs. In these languages, the systematic use of a MoC is specified at the language level, removing from the end-user the burden of understanding or using MoCs. It also allows the refinement of the language for specific execution platforms, and enables the use of concurrency-aware analyses on the systems

Coping with Semantic Variation Points in Domain-Specific Modeling Languages

International audienceEven if they exhibit differences, many Domain-Specific Modeling Languages (DSMLs) share elements from their concepts, notations and semantics. StateCharts is a well known family of DSMLs that share many concepts but exhibit notational differences and many execution semantics variants (called Semantic Variation Points – SVPs –). For instance, when two conflicting transitions in a state machine are enabled by the same event occurrence, which transition is fired depends on the language variant (Harel original StateCharts, UML, Rhapsody, etc.) supported by the execution tool. Tools usually provide only one implementation of SVPs. It complicates communication both between tools and end-users, and hinders the co-existence of multiple variants. More generally, Language Workbenches dedicated to the specification and implementation of eXecutable Domain-Specific Modeling Languages (xDSMLs) often do not offer the tools and facilities to manage these SVPs, making it a time-consuming and troublesome activity. In this paper, we describe a modularized approach to the operational execution semantics of xDSMLs and show how it allows us to manage SVPs. We illustrate this proposal on StateCharts

Utilisation systématique des modèles de concurrence dans la sémantique d'exécution des langages de modélisation dédiés

Document en Anglais avec résumés substantiels en Français.Language-Oriented Programming (LOP) advocates designing eXecutable Domain-Specific Modeling Languages (xDSMLs) to facilitate the design, development, verification and validation of modern software-intensive and highly-concurrent systems.These systems place their needs of rich concurrency constructs at the heart of modern software engineering processes. To ease their development, theoretical computer science has studied the use of dedicated paradigms for the specification of concurrent systems, called Models of Concurrency (MoCs). They enable the use of concurrency-aware analyses such as detecting deadlocks or starvation situations, but are complex to understand and master.In this thesis, we develop and extend an approach that aims at reconciling LOP and MoCs by designing so-called Concurrency-aware xDSMLs. In these languages, the systematic use of a MoC is specified at the language level, removing from the end-user the burden of understanding or using MoCs. It also allows the refinement of the language for specific execution platforms, and enables the use of concurrency-aware analyses on the systems.La programmation orientée langage (Language-Oriented Programming -- LOP) préconise l'utilisation de langages de modélisation dédiés exécutables (eXecutable Domain-Specific Modeling Languages -- xDSMLs) pour la conception, le développement, la vérification et la validation de systèmes hautement concurrents. De tels systèmes placent l'expression de la concurrence dans les langages informatiques au coeur du processus d'ingénierie logicielle, par exemple à l'aide de formalismes dédiés appelés modèles de concurrence (Models of Concurrency -- MoCs). Ceux-ci permettent une analyse poussée du comportement des systèmes durant les phases de vérification et de validation, mais demeurent complexes à comprendre, utiliser, et maîtriser.Dans cette thèse, nous développons et étendons une approche qui vise à faire collaborer l'approche LOP et les MoCs à travers le développement de xDSMLs dans lesquels la concurrence est spécifiée de façon explicite (Concurrency-aware xDSMLs). Dans de tels langages, on spécifie l'utilisation systématique d'un MoC au niveau de la sémantique d'exécution du langage, facilitant l'expérience pour l'utilisateur final qui n'a alors pas besoin d'appréhender et de maîtriser l'utilisation du MoC choisi. Un tel langage peut être raffiné lors de la phase de déploiement, pour s'adapter à la plateforme utilisée, et les systèmes décrits peuvent être analysés sur la base du MoC utilisé

Utilisation systématique des modèles de concurrence dans les langages de modélisation dédiés exécutables

La programmation orientée langage (Language-Oriented Programming – LOP) préconise l’utilisation de langages de modélisation dédiés exécutables (eXecutable Domain-Specific Modeling Languages – xDSMLs) pour la conception, le développement, la vérification et la validation de systèmes hautement concurrents. De tels systèmes placent l’expression de la concurrence dans les langages informatiques au coeur du processus d’ingénierie logicielle, par exemple à l’aide de formalismes dédiés appelés modèles de concurrence (Models of Concurrency – MoCs). Ceux-ci permettent une analyse poussée du comportement des systèmes durant les phases de vérification et de validation, mais demeurent complexes à comprendre, utiliser, et maîtriser. Dans cette thèse, nous développons et étendons une approche qui vise à faire collaborer l’approche LOP et les MoCs à travers le développement de xDSMLs dans lesquels la concurrence est spécifiée de façon explicite (Concurrency-aware xDSMLs). Dans de tels langages, on spécifie l’utilisation systématique d’un MoC au niveau de la sémantique d’exécution du langage, facilitant l’expérience pour l’utilisateur final qui n’a alors pas besoin d’appréhender et de maîtriser l’utilisation du MoC choisi.Un tel langage peut être raffiné lors de la phase de déploiement, pour s’adapter à la plateforme utilisée, et les systèmes décrits peuvent être analysés sur la base du MoC utilisé.Language-Oriented Programming (LOP) advocates designing eXecutable Domain-Specific Modeling Languages (xDSMLs) to facilitate the design, development, verification and validation of modern softwareintensive and highly-concurrent systems. These systems place their needs of rich concurrency constructs at the heart of modern software engineering processes. To ease theirdevelopment, theoretical computer science has studied the use of dedicated paradigms for the specification of concurrent systems, called Models of Concurrency (MoCs). They enable the use of concurrencyaware analyses such as detecting deadlocks or starvation situations, but are complex to understand and master. In this thesis, we develop and extend an approach that aims at reconciling LOP and MoCs by designing so-called Concurrencyaware xDSMLs. In these languages, the systematic use of a MoC is specified at the language level, removing from the end-user the burden of understanding or using MoCs. It also allows the refinement of the language for specific execution platforms, and enables the use of concurrency-aware analyses on the systems

Concurrency-aware eXecutable Domain-Specific Modeling Languages as Models of Concurrency

International audienceTo deal with the increasing complexity of modern highly-concurrent systems, the GEMOC concurrency-aware eXecutable Domain-Specific Modeling Languages (xDSMLs) approach proposes to make explicit, in the operational semantics model, the concurrency concerns using a Model of Concur-rency (MoC). This approach initially provides only one MoC: Event Structures, based on a MoCCML model. But this MoC is not the best fit for all concurrency paradigms used in xDSMLs, resulting in complex models which are difficult to maintain or analyze. Moreover, extending the approach with new MoCs is complex: many elements must be integrated, and fit into the APIs used by the implementation. We propose to seamlessly define and integrate new MoCs through a recursive definition of the concurrency-aware xDSML approach, enabling the use of previously-defined xDSMLs as MoCs. This allows xDSMLs to always rely on an adequate MoC which also comes tooled with the generic execution and debugging facilities provided by the concurrency-aware approach. We illustrate our approach on the definition of fUML in the GEMOC Studio, an Eclipse-based language workbench