View source for D45 General Platform Maintenance

= Overview =
The Rodin platform versions concerned by this deliverable are:
* 2.1(08.02.2011),
* 2.2(01.06.2011),
* 2.2.2(01.08.2011),
* 2.3(04.10.2011),
* 2.4(31.01.2011),
* 2.5(30.04.2011).
This year, the maintenance carried on fixing identified bugs, although an emphasis has been put on correcting usability issues. Indeed, during the meeting in Nice, the WP9 members agreed to refocus on the needed tasks to address some specific bugs and issues reported by DEPLOY partners, and wished resolved by the end of DEPLOY. Thus, no new features were implemented but those appearing in the description of work. The tasks to be performed by the WP9 members were then scheduled, prioritized and regularly updated during the WP9 bi-weekly meetings. The updates allowed to capture and integrate rapidly some minor changes to enhance the usability of the platform which were required by the DEPLOY partners. The following paragraphs will give an overview of the the work that has been performed concerning maintenance on the existing platform components (i.e. core platform and plug-ins).

See the Release Notes<ref name="documentation">http://wiki.event-b.org/index.php/D32_General_Platform_Maintenance#Available_Documentation</ref> and the SourceForge<ref name=documentation>http://wiki.event-b.org/index.php/D45_General_Platform_Maintenance#Available_Documentation</ref> databases (bugs and feature requests) for details about the previous and upcoming releases of the Rodin platform.

* General platform maintenance (Thomas Muller)
The maintenance done to overcome Rodin scalability weaknesses and enhance the proving experience will be detailed in a separate chapter. However, some features initially planned and some other which were later added and prioritized are worth to mention:
:*Possibility to highlight patterns in the ProverUI,
:*A better output providing warning and errors in case of wrong or missing building configurations,
:*The switch to Eclipse 3.7
:*A Handbook to complete and enhance the existing documentation.
These items will be detailed hereafter in this chapter.

* {{TODO}} An overview of the contribution about Mathematical extensions / Theory Plug-in (Issam Maamria)

* {{TODO}} An overview of the contribution about Plug-in Incompatibilities (All partners) 

* {{TODO}} An overview of the contribution about Modularisation (Alexei Illiasov)

* {{TODO}} An overview of the contribution about Decomposition (Renato Silva)

* {{TODO}} An overview of the contribution about Team-based Development (Colin Snook, Vitaly Savicks)

* {{TODO}} An overview of the contribution about UML-B (Colin Snook, Vitaly Savicks) 

* {{TODO}} An overview of the contribution about ProR (Michael Jastram)

= Motivations =
The tasks to solve the issues faced by the DEPLOY partners have been listed and being assigned to groups according to their priority. A high priority means a high need in the outcome of a given task. The group 1 has the highest priority, the group 2 has an intermediate priority, and the group 3 has the lowest priority. The group 4 concerns topics that could not be ressourced during the lifetime of DEPLOY.The prover integrity item although not being directly covered, has been partially addressed thanks to Isabelle and SMT integration. Unfortunately, the originally planned export of full proofs and integrity check is beyond the scope of DEPLOY.

{{SimpleHeader}}
|-
! scope=col | Group 1 (highest priority) || Responsible
|-
|Performance <br /> - Core (large models, etc.) <br /> - GUI (incl. prover UI, edition, etc.) || SYSTEREL
|-
|Prover Performances <br /> - New rewriting rules / inference rules <br /> - Automatic tactics (preferences, timeout, etc.) || SYSTEREL
|-
|ProB Disprover (incl. counter examples to DLF POs) || Düsseldorf
|-
|Stability (crash, corruption, etc.)  || SYSTEREL
|-
|Editors || SYSTEREL/Düsseldorf
|-
|}
{{SimpleHeader}}
|-
! scope=col | Group 2 || Responsible
|-
| Prover Performances <br /> - SMT provers integration <br /> - connection with Isabelle  <br /> - Mathematical extensions <br /> - ProB || <br />SYSTEREL <br /> ETH Zürich <br /> Southampton/SYSTEREL <br /> Düsseldorf
|-
|Scalability <br /> - Decomposition <br /> - Modularisation plug-in <br /> - Team-based development || <br /> Southampton <br /> Newcastle <br /> Southampton
|-
|Plug-in incompatibilities || Newcastle
|-
|Model-based testing || Pitesti/Düsseldorf
|-
|ProR || Düsseldorf
|}
{{SimpleHeader}}
|-
! scope=col | Group 3 || Responsible
|-
|Scalability <br /> - Generic instantiation <br /> - UML-B maintenance <br /> || <br /> Southampton <br /> ETH Zürich/Southampton
|-
|Code Generation || Southampton
|}
{{SimpleHeader}}
|-
! scope=col | Group 4 
|-
|Prover Integrity
|-
|Integrity of Code Generation
|}
== Platform maintenance ==
The platform maintenance, as it can be deduced from the above tables in section [[#Motivations | Motivations]], mainly concerned stability and performance improvement. These topics will be discussed and detailed in a separate chapter about scalability improvements.<br>
However, other prioritary improvements were made on the platform. These improvements or came from DEPLOY partners specific needs, or were corresponding to previously identified needs (listed in D32 - Model Construction tools & Analysis III Deliverable).
Hence we review below the motivations of some noteworthy implemented features:
* A Possibility to highlight patterns in the ProverUI.
This feature came from a request of DEPLOY partners<ref name="searchInPUI">https://sourceforge.net/tracker/?func=detail&atid=651672&aid=3092835&group_id=108850</ref>, often facing the need to find particular patterns such as expressions in long predicates (e.g. long goals). Since Rodin 2.2, and its new ProvingUI interface, a nice feature was added, allowing to search and highlight a string pattern into the whole ProvingUI views and editors. This function as also been enabled on direct selection of text in this UI.
* A better output providing warning and errors in case of wrong or missing building configurations.
This issue, often seen as a bug or a plug-in incompatibility, raises when a user imoprts and tries to use a model on a platform with some missing plug-ins needed on build. The user often use to think his models corrupted although Rodin just being not able to build them, and hiding this information to the user. This is why, since Rodin 2.3, an output in such case has been provided taking the form of warnings or errors that any user can review. This is a partial answer to Rodin plug-in incompatibilities issue. 
* The switch to Eclipse 3.7.
Due to the major improvements made every year in every Eclipse releases and the continuously growing number of contributing projects which are for some of them used as basis for Rodin plug-ins, the Rodin platform follows the evolution and is adapted every year quickly to the latest Eclipse version available. This year, Rodin 2.3 originated the switch from Eclipse 3.6 to Eclipse 3.7.
* A Handbook to complete and enhance the existing documentation.
At the DEPLOY Plenary Meeting in Zürich in 2010, it has been stated that the current documentation, in its state at that time, would not support, a engineer starting using the tools without significant support of an expert <ref name="documentationoverhaul>http://wiki.event-b.org/index.php/User_Documentation_Overhaul</ref>. Losts of efforts to improve the documentation were performed and coordinated by Düsseldorf, and took form of a handbook<ref name="RodinHandbook">http://handbook.event-b.org/</ref>. The Rodin handbook has the aim to minimize the access to an expert, by providing the necessary assistance to an engineer in the need to be productive using Event-B and the Rodin toolset. The contents of the handbook, user oriented, were originated by the contents of the Event-B wiki, which have been finally migrated from the wiki to the Rodin handbook.

== Mathematical extensions / Theory Plug-in ==
{{TODO}} ''To be completed by Issam Maamria''
== Plug-in Incompatibilities ==
{{TODO}} ''To be completed by all partners''
== Modularisation ==
{{TODO}} ''To be completed by Alexei Illiasov''
== Decomposition ==
{{TODO}} ''To be completed by Renato Silva''  
== Team-based Development ==
{{TODO}} ''To be completed by Colin Snook, Vitaly Savicks'' 
== UML-B ==
{{TODO}} ''To be completed by Colin Snook, Vitaly Savicks''
== ProR == 
{{TODO}} ''To be completed by Michael Jastram''

= Choices / Decisions =
== Platform maintenance ==
* Revisited task priority
This year, the process of giving priority to maintenance tasks was revisited according the the refocus mentionned above. The aim was address all the major scalability issues before the end of DEPLOY. Thus not only the requests coming from DEPLOY partners were given high priorities, but they were prioritized against the already planned tasks coming from both DEPLOY partners and the Description of Work. This prioritization was performed or internally at each WP9 member site, if the task is short (i.e. less than one man-week), or during the WP9 bi-weekly telephone conferences otherwise.   
* A way to tackle plug-in incompatibilities
It has been decided in concertation with all the WP9 partners to find better ways to address the plug-in incompatibility issues. First of all, the various partners refined the concept of "plug-in incompatibility". Hence, various aspects could be identified and some specific answers were given to each of them. The user could then defined more clearly the incompatibility faced. Plug-in incompatibilities can be separated in two categories:
:* Rodin/plug-in incompatibilities, due to some wrong match between Rodin included packages and the plug-in dependencies (i.e. needed packages). These incompatibilities when reported allowed the plug-in  developpers to contact SYSTEREL in charge of managing the packages shipped with a given version of Rodin. It could also allow tracability of incompatibilities and information to the user through a specific and actualized table on each Rodin release notes page on the Wiki<ref name="incompTableA">http://wiki.event-b.org/index.php/Rodin_Platform_Releases#Current_plug-ins</ref>.
:* plug-in/plug-in incompatibilities, due to some wrong match between needed/installed packages, or API/ressources incompatible usage. A table was created on each release notes wiki page, and a procedure was defined<ref name="incompTableB">http://wiki.event-b.org/index.php/Rodin_Platform_Releases#Known_plug-in_incompatibilities</ref> so that identified incompatibilities are listed and corrected by the concerned developers.
It appeared that cases of using a model which references some missing plug-ins were formerly often seen as compatibility issues although they are not.

* Keep 32-bit versions of the Rodin platform on linux and windows systems
It was asked by end users to make both 32-bit and 64-bit versions of the Rodin platform available for Linux and Windows platforms. Only a 64-bit version of Rodin is available on Mac platforms as 32-bit Mac (early 2006) platforms are no longer maintained. The request to offer 64-bit was motivated by the possibility to increase for them the available java heap size for some memory greedy platforms (these before 2.3). However, the drawbacks of assembling and maintaining more platforms (5 platforms instead of 3) and the corrections brought to the database which improved the memory consumption pushed away the limitations of the platform, made this request no longer relevant for now.

== Mathematical extensions / Theory Plug-in ==
{{TODO}} ''To be completed by Issam Maamria''
== Plug-in Incompatibilities ==
{{TODO}} ''To be completed by all partners''
== Modularisation ==
{{TODO}} ''To be completed by Alexei Illiasov''
== Decomposition ==
{{TODO}} ''To be completed by Renato Silva''  
== Team-based Development ==
{{TODO}} ''To be completed by Colin Snook, Vitaly Savicks'' 
== UML-B ==
{{TODO}} ''To be completed by Colin Snook, Vitaly Savicks''
== ProR == 
{{TODO}} ''To be completed by Michael Jastram''

= Available Documentation =
* Core platform:
:The following pages give useful information about the Rodin platform releases:
:* Release notes<ref>http://wiki.event-b.org/index.php/Rodin_Platform_Releases</ref>.
:* Bugs<ref>https://sourceforge.net/tracker/?group_id=108850&atid=651669</ref>.
:* Feature requests<ref>https://sourceforge.net/tracker/?group_id=108850&atid=651672</ref>.
*The Rodin handbook is proposed as a PDF version and a HTML version and a dedicated plug-in makes it available as help within Rodin<ref name="RodinHandbook">http://handbook.event-b.org/</ref>.

*{{TODO}}  Links for Mathematical extensions / Theory Plug-in
*{{TODO}}  Links for Plug-in Incompatibilities
*{{TODO}}  Links for Modularisation
*{{TODO}}  Links for Decomposition
*{{TODO}}  Links for Team-based Development
*{{TODO}}  Links for UML-B
*{{TODO}}  Links for ProR

= Status =
== Platform maintenance ==
By the end of the project, there are :
* xx bugs reported and open. All with a priority lower or equal to 5.
* xx feature requests expressed and still open.

== Mathematical extensions / Theory Plug-in ==
{{TODO}} ''To be completed by Issam Maamria''
== Plug-in Incompatibilities ==
{{TODO}} ''To be completed by all partners''
== Modularisation ==
{{TODO}} ''To be completed by Alexei Illiasov''
== Decomposition ==
{{TODO}} ''To be completed by Renato Silva''  
== Team-based Development ==
{{TODO}} ''To be completed by Colin Snook, Vitaly Savicks'' 
== UML-B ==
{{TODO}} ''To be completed by Colin Snook, Vitaly Savicks''
== ProR == 
{{TODO}} ''To be completed by Michael Jastram''


= References =
<references/>

[[Category:D45 Deliverable]]