HomePublicationsPaper

Caos: A Reusable Scala Web Animator of Operational Semantics
Ref: CISTER-TR-230611       Publication Date: 23, Jun, 2023

Abstract:
This tool paper presents : Caos a methodology and a programming framework for computer-aided design of structural operational semantics for formal models. This framework includes a set of Scala libraries and a workflow to produce visual and interactive diagrams that animate and provide insights over the structure and the semantics of a given abstract model with operational rules. Caos follows an approach in which theoretical foundations and a practical tool are built together, as an alternative to foundations-first design (“tool justifies theory”) or tool-first design (“foundations justify practice”). The advantage of is that the tool-under-development can immediately be used to automatically run numerous and sizeable examples in order to identify subtle mistakes, unexpected outcomes, and unforeseen limitations in the foundations-under-development, as early as possible. We share two success stories of Caos methodology and framework in our own teaching and research context, where we analyse a simple while-language and a choreographic language, including their operational rules and the concurrent composition of such rules. We further discuss how others can include in their own analysis and Scala tools.

José Proença

,

Luc Edixhoven

Document:

View
PDF Download
PDF