Interactive prototyping of communication-intensive systems

Formalizes an interpretation of message-flow diagrams, allowing them to be translated into an executable forms, and develops a system, called “Cara”, which allows a designer to enter message-flow diagrams and data operations, and to begin simulating with them immediately. Both control and data operations are translated into rules, which can be fine-tuned by the designer and used for simulation. In the Cara system, a flow-to-rule translator and a rule simulator operate concurrently with the designer. As the designer creates and modifies a diagram, the translator incrementally updates the architecture. The simulator uses the updated definition immediately to offer a next action to the designer (if one exists). In this way, the designer can always see whether the architecture is operating as intended