Argos: an automaton-based synchronous language

  • Authors:

  • Florence Maraninchi;Yann RéMond

  • Affiliations:

  • VERIMAG11VERIMAG is a joint laboratory of UJF, CNRS and INPG./Institut National Polytechnique de Grenoble (INPG), Centre Equation - 2, Avenue de Vignate, 38610 GIERES, France;VERIMAG/Université Joseph Fourier Grenoble I (UJF), Centre Equation - 2, Avenue de Vignate, 38610 GIERES, France

  • Venue:
  • Computer Languages
  • Year:
  • 2001

Quantified Score

Hi-index 0.00

Visualization

Abstract

Argos belongs to the family of synchronous languages, designed for programming reactive systems: Lustre (Proceedings of the 14th Symposium on Principles of Programming Languages, Munich, 1987; Proc. IEEE 79(9) (1999) 1305), Esterel (Sci. Comput. Programming 19(2) (1992) 87), Signal (Technical Report, IRISA Report 246, IRISA, Rennes, France, 1985). Argos is a set of operators that allow to combine Boolean Mealy machines, in a compositional way. It takes its origin in Statecharts (Sci. Comput. Programming 8 (1987) 231), but with the Argos operators, one can build only a subset of Statecharts, roughly those that do not make use of multi-level arrows. We explain the main motivations for the definition of Argos, and the main differences with Statecharts and their numerous semantics. We define the set of operators, give them a perfectly synchronous semantics in the sense of Esterel, and prove that it is compositional, with respect to the trace equivalence of Boolean Mealy machines. We give an overview of the work related to the definition and implementation of Argos (code generation, connection to verification tools, introduction of non-determinism, etc.). This paper also gives a set of guidelines for building an automaton-based, Statechart-like, yet perfectly synchronous, language.