Code Generation for Event-B

TL;DR

This paper introduces EventB2Java, a tool that translates Event-B models into JML-annotated Java code, enabling seamless integration of formal modeling and implementation for system development.

Contribution

It presents a set of syntactic translation rules and an implementation tool that bridges Event-B and Java/JML, facilitating combined use of stepwise refinement and Design-by-Contract.

Findings

Successfully translated multiple Event-B models to JML-annotated Java code.

Enabled development of two software applications using the tool.

Compared EventB2Java with other Event-B code generation tools, demonstrating its effectiveness.

Abstract

Stepwise refinement and Design-by-Contract are two formal approaches for modelling systems. These approaches are widely used in the development of systems. Both approaches have (dis-)advantages. This thesis aims to answer, is it possible to combine both approaches in the development of systems, providing the user with the benefits of both? We answer this question by translating the stepwise refinement method with Event-B to Design-by-Contract with Java and JML, so users can take full advantage of both formal approaches without losing their benefits. This thesis presents a set of syntactic rules that translates Event-B to JML-annotated Java code. It also presents the implementation of the syntactic rules as the EventB2Java tool. We used the tool to translate several Event-B models. It generated JML-annotated Java code for all the considered models that serve as initial implementation. We also used EventB2Java for the development of two software applications. Additionally, we compared EventB2Java against two other tools for Event-B code generation. EventB2Java enables users to start the software development process in Event-B, where users can model the system and prove its consistency, to then transition to JML-annotated Java code, where users can continue the development process.