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GTSMorpher: Safely Composing Behavioural Analyses Using Structured Operational Semantics

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Composing Model-Based Analysis Tools

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Abstract

We are seeing an increase in the number of different languages and design tools used for designing and implementing such systems, fuelled by research in domain-specific modelling languages leading to increasingly more reliable and production-ready environments for language-oriented programming (LOP). While LOP has undeniable benefits for the efficiency and effectiveness of software development, it creates new problems for software analysis: most existing analysis tools are tied to a specific representation of the software to be analysed. LOP is predicated on developing bespoke representations for each type of problem. This requires analysis tools to be, at least partially, reimplemented and adapted for each new such language.

One approach is to build transformations that compile a model in a given language into a representation that can be handled by a given analysis tool (cf. Chap. 5 of this book). A key challenge here is to ensure that these transformations correctly reflect the semantics of the original language in the analysis-tool-specific representation. This is non-trivial and becomes even more challenging when more than one analysis tool is to be applied to a given system design.

In this chapter, we present a different approach, where analyses are directly represented as executable domain-specific modelling languages (xDSMLs), making their operational semantics explicit as graph-transformation rules. Powerful composition operations provide support for the independent and reusable development of analysis tools and languages, which can then be woven at will. In previous work, we have developed the formal foundations for this approach and have shown the conditions under which such composition is safe, even when combining multiple different analyses. In this chapter, we introduce GTSMorpher, a software tool that allows xDSMLs and their compositions to be expressed in the context of the Eclipse Modelling Framework. We demonstrate the use of GTSMorpher through case studies.

This case-study chapter illustrates concepts introduced in Chap. 4 and addresses Challenge 1 in Chap. 3 of this book.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. King’s College London, London, UK

    Steffen Zschaler

  2. University of Málaga, Málaga, Spain

    Francisco Durán

Authors
  1. Steffen Zschaler
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  2. Francisco Durán
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Correspondence to Steffen Zschaler .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, Karlsruhe, Germany

    Robert Heinrich

  2. University of Málaga, Málaga, Spain

    Francisco Durán

  3. SRI International, Menlo Park, CA, USA

    Carolyn Talcott

  4. King's College London, London, UK

    Steffen Zschaler

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Zschaler, S., Durán, F. (2021). GTSMorpher: Safely Composing Behavioural Analyses Using Structured Operational Semantics. In: Heinrich, R., Durán, F., Talcott, C., Zschaler, S. (eds) Composing Model-Based Analysis Tools. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-81915-6_9

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-81915-6_9

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-030-81914-9

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-030-81915-6

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