Visual Modeling and Formal Validation
This presents a collection of papers pertaining to the v-Promela notation and the VIP (Visual Interface for Promela) tool.
Publications
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M. Kamel, S. Leue: VIP: A Visual Editor and Compiler for v-Promela,
Proceedings of the 6th International Conference on Tools and Algorithms for the Construction and Analysis of Systems, TACAS'2000, 2000.
Abstract: 
We describe the Visual Interface to Promela (VIP) tool that we have recently implemented. VIP supports the visual editing and maintenance of v-Promela models. v-Promela is a visual, object-oriented extension to Promela, the input language to the Spin~model checker. We introduce the v-Promela notation as supported by the VIP editor, discuss Promela code generation, and describe the process of property validation for the resulting models. Our discussion centers around two case studies, a call processing system and the CORBA GIOP protocol.
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Stefan Leue, Gerard Holzmann: v-Promela: A Visual, Object-Oriented Language for Spin,
Proceedings of the Second IEEE International Symposium on Object-Oriented Real-Time Distributed Computing, Saint Malo, France, IEEE Computer Society Press, 1999.
Abstract: We describe the design of VIP, a graphical front-end to the model checker Spin. VIP supports a visual formalism, called v-Promela that connects the model checker to modern hierarchical notations for the specification of object-oriented, reactive systems. The formalism is comparable to formalisms such as UML-RT, ROOM, and Statecharts, but is presented here in a framework that allows us to combine the benefits of a visual, hierarchical specification method with the power of LTL model checking provided by Spin. Like comparable formalisms, VIP can describe hierarchies of behaviour and of system structure. The formalism is designed to be transparent to the Spin model checker itself, by allowing all central constructs to be translated mechanically into basic Promela, as already supported by the existing model checker.
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