From algebra transformation to labelled transition systems

Abstract

The formal specification of multiple viewpoints of a system requires multiple specification formalisms, suitable for the specific concerns of the viewpoints. For rather different viewpoints, such as for instance the information and the computational model of a component of a system, even the underlying paradigms of the specification formalisms may be different. In this paper a general semantical framework for the formal specification of dynamically evolving systems is presented. Its models, algebra transformation systems, have states whose internal data structures are given by partial algebas, which are manipulated by the application of replacement rules. Its paradigm is the descriptive one of general model theory respectively institutions. Partial observations of the internal state structures yield a translation from algebra transformation systems to labelled transition systems, the granularity of which is determined by the specification of the admissible observations. Since labelled transition systems can be considered as the general (operational) models for process calculi, this translation allows comparisons between the descriptive paradigm of the model theoretic approach and the operational one of process calculi. Thus consistency checks of multiple viewpoint specifications are supported.

This work has partially been supported by the EEC TMR network GETGRATS (General Theory of Graph Transformation Systems).