An automatic translation from textual E-LOTOS into graphic E-LOTOS

Conformance testing involves checking the correctness of protocol implementations according to the protocol specification in the computer communication network. To give the protocol specification clearly and exactly, "formal description techniques" must be used in describing the protocol. LOTOS (Language of Temporal Ordering Specification) is one of them. E-LOTOS is an enhancement to standard LOTOS. The paper first presents a graphical version, called GE-LOTOS, of E-LOTOS. GE-LOTOS specifies a distributed system of interacting tasks in a tree-like structure similar to Microsoft's Windows Explorer. The second part of the paper develops an editing and compiling software tool which can automatically translate textual E-LOTOS into graphic E-LOTOS under Java Cafe environment. The software tool not only embodies E-LOTOS in the form of abstract level, but can also dynamically expand and overlap any subprocess or all subprocesses. Additionally, it can be used for protocol testing and verification.