Proposal for a generic prototyping approach

The procedure we define is parametrized by: the input description formalism which can be any structured and/or hierarchical representation; and the programming language used to describe the prototype of a system. Our prototyping procedure involves three description levels: 1) the input formalism is a semi-formal description that only allows syntactic checks (completeness and coherence of the specification); 2) a formal description of the system obtained by translation of the semi-formal description and is useful for validation of the system (Petri nets is used to express this specification level); and 3) an executable description, expressed by means of a programming language and obtained by code generation from either the Petri net level or the semi-formal description. The prototyping procedure we present in this paper is partially implemented.<>