A Rewriting Framework for Rule-Based Programming Dynamic Applications

In recent years light-weighted formal methods are of growing interest in construction and analysis of complex concurrent software system. A new rule-action based term rewriting framework, called TermWare, is proposed and its application to software system analysis are described to provide better cost effectiveness of software maintenance under varied requirements and specifications of operation. The main advantage is light-weighted formal model based not on computation semantics but on particular properties of software system to be analyzed. Such approach eliminates the need in full formal analysis of software system and allows extreme flexibility of applications in two major concerns: high adaptability to changeable environment and easy reengineering and component reuse. The language and formal semantics of the system are defined. A new semantic model, called term system with action, is proposed for TermWare. A case study with some representative examples in source code analysis and software development with TermWare framework is presented.