AGATE, access graph based tools for handling encapsulation

Encapsulation and modularity are supported by various static access control mechanisms that manage implementation hiding and define interfaces adapted to different client profiles. Programming languages use numerous and very different mechanisms, the cumulative application of which is sometimes confusing and hard to predict. Furthermore, understanding and reasoning about access control independently from the programming languages is quite difficult. Tools based on a language-independent model of access control are presented to address these issues. These tools support access control handling via visualisation of access, checking of design requirements on access and source code generation. We believe in the contribution of such tools for improving understanding and enhancing use of access control from design to implementation.