Designing a simulator for POOSL
I Ingrid Mankoe · TU/e Research Portal · 1996
Within the Information and Communication Systems Group at the Eindhoven University of Technology, active research is done into design methods and tools that support the development of complex systems. This research resulted in the object-oriented design methology SHE (Software/Hardware Engineering). As a part of SHE the formal specification language POOSL (Parallel Object-Oriented Specification Language) is designed. Starting from informal graphical modelling the SHE method produces rigorous specifications described in the POOSL language. Once a POOSL specification of a system is made, it can be used to automate subsequent design steps. To do so, one has to be sure that the specification is correct. For this reason the need for a tool arises which can be used to check the correctness of a specification: a POOSL simulator. In this thesis the first steps towards the design and implementation of a POOSL simulator are described. The mapping of POOSL onto the programming language Smalltalk and the conversion of the POOSL syntax into Smalltalk equivalents are the main subjects of this thesis. First an inventory is made of the differences between the specification language POOSL and the programming language Smalltalk. This is followed by the mapping problems that result from these differences. Solutions for these problems are given, resulting in conceptual solutions for the POOSL simulator. Special attention is paid to the design and implementation of a mechanism in Smalltalk, which is used to simulate the communication between POOSL process objects. The conversion of the POOSL syntax into its Smalltalk equivalent is described in detail. Conversion rules for almost all process statements are given. Finally, the implementation and conversion rules are used to simulate a test design in order to demonstrate the resulting implementation.