Minimally adequate teacher synthesizes statechart diagrams

Abstract. We consider the problem of synthesizing UML statechart diagrams from sequence diagrams as a language inference problem, and we solve it in Angluin's framework of minimally adequate teacher. The designer has the role of the teacher who answers membership and equivalence queries made by the algorithm. It turns out that there are several natural methods to decrease the number of membership queries needed, and thus, to make the algorithm practically applicable.

[1]  Ronald L. Rivest,et al.  Inference of finite automata using homing sequences , 1989, STOC '89.

[2]  Dana Angluin,et al.  Inductive Inference of Formal Languages from Positive Data , 1980, Inf. Control..

[3]  Tao Jiang,et al.  Learning regular languages from counterexamples , 1988, COLT '88.

[4]  David Harel,et al.  Statecharts: A Visual Formalism for Complex Systems , 1987, Sci. Comput. Program..

[5]  Mohammad Reza Mousavi,et al.  Synthesizing software architecture descriptions from Message Sequence Chart specifications , 1998, Proceedings 13th IEEE International Conference on Automated Software Engineering (Cat. No.98EX239).

[6]  Dana Angluin Negative results for equivalence queries , 1990, Mach. Learn..

[7]  David Harel,et al.  Synthesizing State-Based Object Systems from LSC Specifications , 2000, Int. J. Found. Comput. Sci..

[8]  Carl H. Smith,et al.  Inductive Inference: Theory and Methods , 1983, CSUR.

[9]  Manfred Broy,et al.  From MSCs to Statecharts , 1998, DIPES.

[10]  T. Systa,et al.  MAS - an interactive synthesizer to support behavioral modeling in UML , 2001, Proceedings of the 23rd International Conference on Software Engineering. ICSE 2001.

[11]  E. Mark Gold,et al.  Language Identification in the Limit , 1967, Inf. Control..

[12]  Erkki Mäkinen On the relationship between diagram synthesis and grammatical inference erkki makinen , 1994 .

[13]  Jean G. Vaucher,et al.  From scenarios to timed automata: building specifications from users requirements , 1995, Proceedings 1995 Asia Pacific Software Engineering Conference.

[14]  Erkki Mäkinen,et al.  MAS — an interactive synthesizer to support behavioral modelling in UML , 2001, ICSE.

[15]  Dana Angluin,et al.  Learning Regular Sets from Queries and Counterexamples , 1987, Inf. Comput..

[16]  José L. Balcázar,et al.  Algorithms for Learning Finite Automata from Queries: A Unified View , 1997, Advances in Algorithms, Languages, and Complexity.

[17]  Hans Ulrich Simon,et al.  Learning deterministic finite automata from smallest counterexamples , 1998, SODA '98.

[18]  Michael A. Harrison,et al.  Introduction to formal language theory , 1978 .

[19]  E. Mark Gold,et al.  Complexity of Automaton Identification from Given Data , 1978, Inf. Control..

[20]  Dana Angluin,et al.  A Note on the Number of Queries Needed to Identify Regular Languages , 1981, Inf. Control..

[21]  Erkki Mäkinen,et al.  Automatic synthesis of state machines from trace diagrams , 1994, Softw. Pract. Exp..

[22]  Alan W. Biermann,et al.  Constructing Programs from Example Computations , 1976, IEEE Transactions on Software Engineering.

[23]  Tarja Systä,et al.  Static and Dynamic Reverse Engineering Techniques for Java Software Systems , 2000 .

[24]  Kai Koskimies,et al.  Automated Support for Modeling OO Software , 1998, IEEE Softw..

[25]  David Chenho Kung,et al.  Formal approach to scenario analysis , 1994, IEEE Software.

[26]  Ivar Jacobson,et al.  The unified modeling language reference manual , 2010 .