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A Translation from Alloy to B

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Abstract State Machines, Alloy, B, TLA, VDM, and Z (ABZ 2018)

Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Computer Science ((LNTCS,volume 10817))

Abstract

In this paper, we introduce a translation of the specification language Alloy to classical B. Our translation closely follows the Alloy grammar, each construct is translated into a semantically equivalent component of the B language. In addition to basic Alloy constructs, our approach supports integers and orderings. The translation is fully automated by the tool “Alloy2B”. We evaluate the usefulness by applying AtelierB and ProB to the translated models, and show benefits for proof and solving with integers and higher-order quantification.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    For the sake of readability, the example translation uses the same identifiers as the Alloy module. Of course, one has to ensure the translation is valid, e.g., identifiers do not collide with B’s keywords.

  2. 2.

    Let expressions are available in an extended version of B understood by ProB.

  3. 3.

    Quantifiers are used for typing but do not enforce restrictions on possible models.

  4. 4.

    CLP(FD) overflows are caught and handled by custom implementation.

  5. 5.

    Analysis cannot be performed since it requires higher-order quantification that could not be skolemized.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institut für Informatik, Universität Düsseldorf, Universitätsstr. 1, 40225, Düsseldorf, Germany

    Sebastian Krings, Joshua Schmidt, Carola Brings & Michael Leuschel

  2. Université de Sherbrooke, Sherbrooke, Québec, Canada

    Marc Frappier

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  1. Sebastian Krings
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  2. Joshua Schmidt
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  3. Carola Brings
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  4. Marc Frappier
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  5. Michael Leuschel
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Correspondence to Sebastian Krings .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. University of Southampton, Southampton, United Kingdom

    Michael Butler

  2. Universität Ulm, Ulm, Germany

    Alexander Raschke

  3. University of Southampton, Southampton, United Kingdom

    Thai Son Hoang

  4. Thales Austria GmbH, Vienna, Austria

    Klaus Reichl

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Krings, S., Schmidt, J., Brings, C., Frappier, M., Leuschel, M. (2018). A Translation from Alloy to B. In: Butler, M., Raschke, A., Hoang, T., Reichl, K. (eds) Abstract State Machines, Alloy, B, TLA, VDM, and Z. ABZ 2018. Lecture Notes in Computer Science(), vol 10817. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-91271-4_6

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-91271-4_6

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