Section: New Software and Platforms
MICA
Model Interface Compositional Analysis Library
Keywords: Modal interfaces - Contract-based desing
Scientific Description
In Mica, systems and interfaces are represented by extension. However, a careful design of the state and event heap enables the definition, composition and analysis of reasonably large systems and interfaces. The heap stores states and events in a hash table and ensures structural equality (there is no duplication). Therefore complex data-structures for states and events induce a very low overhead, as checking equality is done in constant time.
Thanks to the Inter module and the mica interactive environment, users can define complex systems and interfaces using Ocaml syntax. It is even possible to define parameterized components as Ocaml functions.
Functional Description
Mica is an Ocaml library implementing the Modal Interface algebra. The purpose of Modal Interfaces is to provide a formal support to contract based design methods in the field of system engineering. Modal Interfaces enable compositional reasoning methods on I/O reactive systems.