Extending DMM behavior specifications for visual execution and debugging

Abstract

Dynamic Meta Modeling (DMM) is a visual semantics specification technique targeted at behavioral languages equipped with a metamodel defining the language's abstract syntax. Given a model and a DMM specification, a transition system can be computed which represents the semantics of that model. It allows for the investigation of the model's behavior, e.g. for the sake of understanding the model's semantics or to verify that certain requirements are fulfilled. However, due to a number of reasons such as tooling and the size of the resulting transition systems, the manual inspection of the resulting transition system is cumbersome. One solution would be a visualization of the model's behavior using animated concrete syntax. In this paper, we show how we have enhanced DMM such that visual execution and debugging can be added to a language in a simple manner. © 2011 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg.