Summary: An Analyzer for Message Sequence Charts 15
[10] T.H. Cormen, C.E. Leiserson, R.L. Rivest. Introduction to Algo­
rithms, MIT press, 1990.
[11] S. Warshall. A theorem on boolean matrices. Journal of the ACM ,
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14 Alur, Holzmann, Peled
6 Conclusions
We have shown that message sequence charts are sensitive to various se­
mantic interpretations. Under different semantics, different race conditions
may occur.
We have proposed and implemented a tool which can be used to ana­
lyze message sequence charts to locate and visualize design errors as early
as possible in a design cycle. The tool conforms to ITU recommendation
Z.120. We have noted that extensions of the tool, to gently integrate for­
mal verification techniques further into the design process, are possible. It
is our intention to use the formal representation of MSCs described here as
a vehicle for exploring such extensions.
Acknowledgements: We thank Chuck Kalmanek, Bob Kurshan, and Mi­
halis Yannakakis for many fruitful discussions. We are also grateful to Brian

Source: Alur, Rajeev - Department of Computer and Information Science, University of Pennsylvania
Peled, Doron A. - Department of Computer Science, University of Warwick

Collections: Computer Technologies and Information Sciences