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A Sound Execution Semantics for ATL via Translation Validation

Research Paper

  • Conference paper
  • First Online:
Theory and Practice of Model Transformations (ICMT 2015)

Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Computer Science ((LNPSE,volume 9152))

Abstract

In this work we present a translation validation approach to encode a sound execution semantics for the ATL specification. Based on our sound encoding, the goal is to soundly verify an ATL specification against the specified OCL contracts. To demonstrate our approach, we have developed the VeriATL verification system using the Boogie2 intermediate verification language, which in turn provides access to the Z3 theorem prover. Our system automatically encodes the execution semantics of each ATL specification (as it appears in the ATL matched rules) into the intermediate verification language. Then, to ensure the soundness of the encoding, we verify that it soundly represents the runtime behaviour of its corresponding compiled implementation in terms of bytecode instructions for the ATL virtual machine. The experiments demonstrate the feasibility of our approach. They also illustrate how to automatically verify an ATL specification against specified OCL contracts.

Z. Cheng—Funded by the Doctoral Teaching scholarship, John & Pat Hume scholarship and Postgraduate Travel fund from Maynooth University.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Z3. http://z3.codeplex.com/.

  2. 2.

    KM3 is a domain specific language for metamodel specifications.

  3. 3.

    Xpand. http://wiki.eclipse.org/Xpand/.

  4. 4.

    Why3. http://why3.lri.fr/.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Computer Science Department, Maynooth University, Maynooth, Co. Kildare, Ireland

    Zheng Cheng, Rosemary Monahan & James F. Power

Authors
  1. Zheng Cheng
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  2. Rosemary Monahan
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  3. James F. Power
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Zheng Cheng .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. University of York, York, United Kingdom

    Dimitris Kolovos

  2. Vienna University of Technology, Vienna, Austria

    Manuel Wimmer

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Cheng, Z., Monahan, R., Power, J.F. (2015). A Sound Execution Semantics for ATL via Translation Validation. In: Kolovos, D., Wimmer, M. (eds) Theory and Practice of Model Transformations. ICMT 2015. Lecture Notes in Computer Science(), vol 9152. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-21155-8_11

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-21155-8_11

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-319-21154-1

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-21155-8

  • eBook Packages: Computer ScienceComputer Science (R0)

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