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A Practical Tool-Chain for the Development of Coordination Scenarios

Graphical Modeler, DSL, Code Generators and Automaton-Based Simulator

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Coordination Models and Languages (COORDINATION 2021)

Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Computer Science ((LNPSE,volume 12717))

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Abstract

Coordination scenarios have high demands on concurrency and interaction. However, these are typical sources for flaws in both design and implementation. A modeling approach enables reasoning about distributed algorithms and finding deficiencies right from the beginning. The Peer Model has been introduced as a modeling tool for distribution, concurrency and blackboard-based collaboration and coordination, relying on known foundations like tuple spaces, Petri Nets and Actor Model. A runtime system exists that serves Java developers for prototyping, but still a feasible tool-chain was missing, like for most academic systems.

This paper presents a practical new tool-chain for the Peer Model consisting of a graphical modelling tool, building on a drawing program that exports XML. A translator parses the XML and translates it into a newly developed domain specific language that is the basis for code generation. One target is a new, formal automaton-based runtime written in the Go programming language. It allows systematic simulation runs of user models. The demo shows a peer competition scenario, where several players play a game, a global state holds the players’ scores, and in addition each peer maintains a decentralized state. Before taking a move in the game, a peer asserts its current local state to be the same like the global one. If this is the case, it carries out its action and distributes the information about it to all other players for further verification. The scenario captures core coordination mechanisms found in blockchain systems.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    The open source tool Draw.io [2] was selected, that can export XML.

  2. 2.

    https://golang.org/.

  3. 3.

    E.g., in case of Byzantine errors [22], the assertion might be violated.

  4. 4.

    gameInfo serves only to make game runs more appealing by giving the players real names.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Faculty of Informatics, Compilers and Languages Group, TU Wien, Vienna, Austria

    Eva Maria Kuehn

Authors
  1. Eva Maria Kuehn
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Eva Maria Kuehn .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. University of Turin, Turin, Italy

    Ferruccio Damiani

  2. Sir Alwyn William Building, University of Glasgow, Glasgow, UK

    Ornela Dardha

Appendices

Appendix

A1: Simulation Run

figure a

A2: Arbiter Peer Type

Fig. 8.
figure 8

Peer Type “Arbiter” (above) and Wiring Types for Arbiter (below).

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Kuehn, E.M. (2021). A Practical Tool-Chain for the Development of Coordination Scenarios. In: Damiani, F., Dardha, O. (eds) Coordination Models and Languages. COORDINATION 2021. Lecture Notes in Computer Science(), vol 12717. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-78142-2_15

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-78142-2_15

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-030-78141-5

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-030-78142-2

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