Visualization of Formal Specifications for Understanding and Debugging an Industrial DSL

In this work we report on our proof of concept of a generic approach: visualized formal specification of a Domain Specific Language (DSL) can be used for debugging, understanding, and impact analysis of the DSL programs. In our case study we provide a domain-specific visualization for the Event-B specification of a real-life industrial DSL and perform a user study among DSL engineers to discover opportunities for its application. In this paper, we explain the rationale behind our visualization design, discuss the technical challenges of its realization and how these challenges were solved using the Model Driven Engineering (MDE) techniques. Based on the positive feedback of the user study, we present our vision on how this successful experience can be reused and the approach can be generalized for other DSLs.