Framework for graph-based formalisms

Qualitative analysis and performance evaluation require the use of suitable formalisms to describe the systems under study. From an abstract point of view, most of the formalisms defined in the literature, can be seen as special kind of hierarchical graphs. In this work we present a framework for defining and manipulating graph-based formalisms. We build it on a data-definition language (or DDL), specific to graph-domain, in which formalisms are described by the set of the legal type of elements that can be used to build their models, and by the constraints that model elements must satisfy. Rapid development of client/server system-analysis tools can be achieved adopting the DDL as an interchanging language.