Find out what's new in the upcoming V2 version 1.0 release of SCCharts!

What is new

...

in SCCharts Version 1.0?

One main change is the new textual SCCharts syntax using the new .sctx file extension. See Converting Legacy Models (sct) on how to convert your existing models.

Controlflow / Dataflow Hybrid-Models

• You can now add dataflow regions to your SCCharts models (see Syntax#Dataflow)

Semantic Comments

• You can now add semantic comments to your SCCharts models (see Syntax#Comments)
• You can also alter the style of the comments to mark POI in your program

New Reference / Module Support / Experimental Inheritance

• The reference and module support for SCCharts has been reworked (see Syntax#References)
• The content assist will help the modeler with the model bindings
• Multiple SCCharts models can be stored in one file
• SCCharts now supports experimental inheritance

For Region

New Transformations

New Annotations & Pragmas

SCCharts Syntax Changes

What is new to the KIELER SCCharts workflow?

New Warnings & Errors

• Detailed reference warnings
• Label shadowing

Project Management 

The workflow now integrates better in the Eclipse environment by providing new wizards and an incremental project builder.

There are wizards for SCCharts projects on the one hand and different files on the other hand. The file wizards are used, e.g., to create files for the different new configuration DSLs.

The incremental project builder is run by Eclipse either in the background when resources changes (Project > Build automatically), or manually by the user (Project > Build Project). What and how files are built can be configured using a new DSL (kibuild files). Errors and warnings that occur during the build are added as error respectively warning markers to the resources where they occur, which is a known concept in the Eclipse IDE. For instance when working with Java, compiler errors are added as markers to files when they are saved. This is now also possible for SCCharts text files and provides faster compiler feedback to users, e.g. because a model can not be compiled.

When a project is build several actions are performed:

• Model files are compiled
  • Optionally a template is processed for each model to generate the simulation code for the model.
• Simulation code is compiled to an executable, which can be started using the new simulation
• Freemarker templates are processed to generate code.
  Depending of the type of the template, additional variables are injected into the template
  
  • Wrapper code templates are used to create the wrapper code for a specific model.
    Annotations on inputs and outputs in the model can be used to define which code snippets are injected as part of the build. These code snippets typically contain code to read or write the corresponding inputs and outputs.
  • Simulation code templates are used to create wrapper code to simulate a model.
    Thus it is a special form of wrapper code template. Instead of user defined annotations, the injected code snippets are determined by the variables in the model.
    This kind of template can be configured as part of a model compiler to automatically generate the simulation for all compiled models.
  • Simple templates are self contained and no additional variables are injected.

Corresponding to the actions that are performed during the build, the configuration in a kibuild file can contain model compilers, simulation compilers and template processors, which is either a simulation template processor, wrapper code template processor or simple template processor.

If all of these are defined, a build could consist for example of the following steps:

• Build a model file A.sctx
  
  • Afterwards process a simulation template to generate its simulation code Sim_A.c
• Compile the simulation code Sim_A.c to an executable using gcc
• Create wrapper code for the model, that is ready to be deployed

...

• Regions can be duplicated automatically (see Syntax#ForRegions)
• For regions have access a unique iterator variable

Vectors

• You can now use vector values to assign arrays. (see Syntax#Vectors)
• Vectors can also be used in the dataflow models.

Further Experimental Features

• Added Scheduling Directives
• Added Probabilistic Transitions
• Added timed automata support for SCCharts

New Expressions

• Expression language now supports infix assignment operators
• Expression language now supports bitwise xor and bitwise not
• Expression language now supports shift operators
• Expression language now supports the ternary conditional operator
• Operator precedences are now correctly mapped to the kexpressions model structure
• Improved host code expressions support 

New Annotations & Pragmas

• Added pragma support to differ between model element annotations and file specific pragmas
• Added unicode pragmas
• Added compiler pragmas
• Added generic layout annotations

SCCharts Syntax Changes

• Primes can be used in identifier
• Hostcode now uses accent grave (`)
• Function call syntax with angle brackets is considered deprecated. It can still be accessed with the extern keyword
• Semicolon now exclusively stands for the sequence operator. By default you don't need a semicolon as line/command delimiter.
• To see a complete overview of the SCCharts syntax, please consult our SCCharts syntax page.
  
  

What is new in KIELER SCCharts Version 1.0?

New Compiler Framework (a.k.a. KiCo 3.0 a.k.a. KiCool)

• Compilation systems are now models which can be configured and instantiated at run-time
• Added pre-configured systems for all existing compilation approaches and tests
• Redone all associated views 
  • Added multi-select in side-by-side mode
• Integrated model element tracing
• Integrated valued object meta information

New Code Generation for SCCharts

• The code generation now creates functions that can handle different status instances of a program.
• The model status is generally saved to a dedicated struct.
• Added new state-based code generation approach for C 
• Added new lean state-based code generation approach for C
• There now exist modular compilation systems for all supported compilation approaches
  • Netlist-based C
  • Netlist-based Java
  • Priority-based C
  • Priority-based Java
  • State-based C
  • Lean State-based C
• All compilation systems have additional variants for simulation and tests

New Supplementary Code Generations

• Original Esterel
• SCEst
• Experimental compilation to Lustre
• Experimental compilation from Lustre

New Processors

• Besides the mandatory processors for the a.m. code generators there are several optional new processors for academic and experimental purposes
  • generic SSA
  • Loop analyses and compiler optimizations (e.g. copy & constant propagation)
  • External compiler invocation
  • Arduino deployment
  • Eclipse project setups
  • Structural Depth Join (SDJ) for schizophrenic models

New Warnings & Errors

• Detailed reference warnings
• Label shadowing

Integrated Simulation

The simulation backend has been rewritten to be more lightweight, flexible and transparent and to better integrate in the workflow.

Major new features are:

• simulation of multiple models at once that interact with each other
• starting the simulation with precompiled executables
• support for arrays
• more user friendly interaction with the simulation
• a DSL (kisim files) to configure complex simulation setups

Simulation Visualization

The current state of a running simulation can be displayed by setting attributes of elements in an SVG image. For instance it is possible to set the color or position of elements based on the value of a variable in the simulation.
Furthermore it is possible to interact with SVG elements to control the simulation and set variable values. This way it is possible to define buttons in the SVG to play, pause, step or stop the simulation, as well as setting variables.

To use these features, an SVG image has to be created, in which the elements that should be animated must have a unique id. Afterwards the interactions and animations for these elements are defined using a DSL (kivis files).

Interactive Model-Based Compiler

...

• Improved usability for simulations (one-click simulations)
• Support for arrays and internal variables, such as SCG guards
• Full integration of simulation code generation into KiCo and the project structure (KIELER-Temp project)

Simulation Visualization

• Added dedication data view for simulation values
• Added live values inside the model diagram
• Simulation visualization view that links an SVG image to the program state, using a mapping and javascript commands defined in a kiviz file.

What is new in KIELER SCCharts Version 1.0 for Developers?

Grammar Changes

• A dash (-) is now available in ExtendedIDs. SCCharts States may now include dashes in their IDs.
• Single underscore (_) IDs are no longer valid. Underscores prefix generated IDs or are Value keywords.

KExpressions

• Valued Objects in assignments and emissions are now valued object references. Hence, they reuse the KExpressions concepts.
  • If you @inject KEffectsExtensions, you can use the same syntax as before. Otherwise, assignment.reference is the ValuedObjectReference that points to the referenced ValuedObject. You can use the reference as usual. Keep in mind that it is a containment.

Workflow

• The compiler framework now uses KiCo 3.0. Please consult the developer documentation of KiCo for further questions.
• The simulation framework now uses the V3 simulation based on KiCo 3.0. Please consult the developer documentation of the simulation for further questions.
• Most of the test cases now uses the models repository directly. You can specify the location of you models repository in the models_repository variable in your test launch configuration.   Please consult the developer documentation of the test framework for further questions.