Mix-and-Match Composition in the Gamma Framework

The Gamma Statechart Composition Framework is a modeling tool that supports the hierarchical composition of statechart components with well-defined compositonal semantics, as well as source code generation and formal verification. The purpose of the framework is to provide common ground for modeling and verification tools, as well as to support component-based system design building on existing statechart modeling tools. Currently, the framework has a single composition semantics, which executes the components in a lockstep fashion. This paper presents a new composition language for the Gamma Framework, adding support for two more semantics. Asynchronousreactive semantics supports the proper abstraction of distributed communication, synchronous-reactive supports the modeling of highly synchronous communication, and cascade composition is a sequential decomposition of a single function.