XAL: A Web Oriented Programming Language Based on Timed-Automata

We developed XAL, a framework that, in our opinion, allows to build Web-oriented applications and services in a more productive way. The core of the framework is a programming language based upon timed-automata. We believe this formalism reflects the nature of many web-oriented applications, each page being a state, and each link being a transition toward another state. Once the programmer defined the set of states that characterize the application, she/he can provide a behavior to each single state, binding the state to a small program written in its favorite programming language. Furthermore, we realized that often companies require an application to behave differently depending on some conditions over real-time. Our language, being a modified version of the timed-automata, allows the programmer to specify constraints over real-time in a declarative way, rather than mix them within the logic of the application.