You know those drag-and-drop software integrated development environments (IDEs) that automatically generate code for the widgets you select and assemble? Well, this team is extending that graphical model to runtime control and status monitoring.

Present state-of-the-art software design uses graphical models to assemble system components, but with embedded systems, we always drop back to the command line for runtime testing. These authors are attempting to change that by pushing the graphical, model-based component view to the runtime debugging and monitoring stage.

This paper summarizes their theoretical approach and describes their success in limited field tests. Unfortunately, there is nothing available for the reader to download and try, and not enough detail to replicate their findings or improve the reader’s own work. The paper serves as advance notice that they are on to something good and expect to get back to us later with tangible products.

The paper is short, just six pages including references. It’s easy to skim, but I found it difficult to extract useful content. The authors’ English far exceeds what I could express in German, but the academic passive voice, combined with English-as-a-second-language grammar, diffused the content over too many words. I had to work to distill it into concrete facts and imperative statements. It’s useful information for those researching software models, but for those of us just trying to grind out embedded products, this idea is not quite ready yet.