Visualizing Errors and Inconsistencies in the DSML IEC 61499
Michael Oberlehner, Bianca Wiesmayr, Hafiyyan Sayyid Fadhlillah, Alois Zoitl · 2023
Errors of textual programming languages are usually detected by the compiler. These errors are then visualized by the IDE and made available to the developer. This paper is intended to show a novel approach to also propagate errors in visual programming languages to the developer. We analyzed the visual block-based language of IEC 61499 and implemented an error visualization mechanism in the Eclipse-based IDE 4diac. As IEC 61499 is a Domain-Specific Modeling Language (DSML) that includes a type system, we also implemented a mechanism for detecting inconsistencies. With this approach, it is possible to work on broken applications, giving developers the opportunity to fix them in a graphical editor. Furthermore, inconsistencies that lead to errors are now displayed rather than being hidden from the developer and hard to detect.