Why should Chemo-Engineers be interested in Graph Grammars? - A Solution to the Inconsistency Problem in Distributed Modeling

Abstract

In distributed modeling, a group of developers are elaborating some specification in a work-sharing manner. Sub specifications and partial models are constructed according to a divide-and-conquer principle. Maintaining the consistency of the evolving sub specifications, generally called documents, is the main meta problem of distributed modeling. The volume of literature on consistency maintenance is vast, especially in the fields of classical software engineering. In this contribution it is shown how consistent document configurations can be coupled by graph schemas and graph grammars. Such models can serve as formal requirements definitions for various kinds of integration tools and consistency management systems. The approach presented here is not at all restricted to software engineering. As our team is busy in a long-term research project on software support for distributed modeling in chemical engineering, the running example in this contribution is taken from that engineering discipline.