Visual animation of B specifications using executable DSLs

• Published in: Innovations in systems and software engineering Vol. 21; no. 3; pp. 985 - 1007
• Main Authors: Yar, Asfand, Idani, Akram, Ledru, Yves, Collart-Dutilleul, Simon
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Heidelberg Springer Nature B.V 01.09.2025
• Subjects: Animation; Domain specific languages; Formal method; Formal specifications; Subject specialists
• ISSN: 1614-5046; 1614-5054
• DOI: 10.1007/s11334-025-00602-8

Visual animation of formal specifications is useful for validation because it facilitates showing visually that the specifications satisfy the user’s perception of requirements. The technique is especially useful for domain experts who would not be expected to understand formal specifications. However, in most tools, the development of a visual animation is done by formal methods engineers and requires skills in various technologies (e.g. Flash, JavaScript, SVG). Our work contributes toward the tools that are dedicated to the B method, such as B-Motion Studio, VisB, etc. In this paper, we show how visual animation can be done using a domain-specific language (DSL), which is expected to be used by domain experts. The advantage is that the mapping between the DSL and the formal specification is written in B itself. The proposed approach is supported by Meeduse, a language workbench built on ProB, an animator and model-checker of the B method. This paper also explains the DSL tool where the mappings between the DSL and formal specification are generated in a semi-automated way.