An Interactive Environment for Debugging Declarative Equation Based Languages.

Abstract. In this paper we present a general framework for debugging declarative equation based languages. This paper uses certain existing bipartite graph based techniques to derive debugging algorithms for the structural diagnosis of simulation models specified in declarative equation based modeling languages. An efficient way of annotating the underlying equations of a simulation model in order to help the user to take error-fixing decisions is also presented. This also provides means to report the location of the error caught by the extended static analyzer or by the numeric solver, consistent with the user’s perception of the source code and the simulation model. We also present a unified reasoning process in order to relax over-constrained systems and obtain a consistent simulation model that supports an enhanced user interaction. The interactive debugging environment provides to the user a greater confidence in the correctness of the simulation model and helps them to resolve conflicting situations when multiple elimination choices are possible. A prototype debugger is implemented. 1