| The book provides a detailed description of a set of languages for modeling reactive systems, which underlies the STATEMATE toolset. The approach is dominated by the language of Statecharts, used to describe behavior, combined Activity-charts for describing activities (i.e., the functional building blocks--capabilities or objects) and the data that flows between them. These two languages are used to develop a conceptual model of the system, which can be combined with the system's physical, or structural model, described in a third language--Module-charts. The three languages are highly diagrammatic in nature, constituting full-fledged visual formalisms, complete with rigorous semantics. They are accompanied by a Data Dictionary for specifying additional parts of the model that are textual in nature.
The only in-depth guide to Statecharts, the most popular approach for the development of real-time and reactive systems. For systems engineers, software engineers, and electrical engineers in all fields, here at last is complete information on the concepts behind the Statemate toolset developed by I-Logix, Inc., the fullest and most powerful approach to the modeling of reactive systems. This guide first describes the dominant Statecharts, which are used to describe system behavior, and then explores the hierarchical language of Activity-charts, which describe the system's activities and the data that flows between them. It then shows how to use these two synergistic languages to develop a conceptual model of the system, which can then be combined with a physical or structural model using the third language of Module-charts. These languages and the subsequent Statemate toolset constitute a breakthrough approach in requirements analysis, specification, and high-level design. They also provide a powerful method for inspecting, testing, and analyzing models. Author David Harel invented Statecharts, and he and coauthor Michal Politi co-developed the other two languages in the set. Ms. Politi also headed the Statemate development team for more than a decade. Their work has earned them the Most Influential Paper Award from the International Conference on Software Engineering, and Harel's work on the language of Statecharts has won him the Stevens Award in Software Development Methods in 1996 and the first Israel Prime Minister's Prize for Software in 1997. No authors are more highly qualified to describe the syntax and semantics of these intracate languages precisely and rigorously--and with extensive examples based on a model early warning system. No book provides better guidance than Modeling Reactive Systems with Statecharts. |
