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| <title>The Boost Statechart Library - Overview</title> |
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| <h1 align="center">The Boost Statechart Library</h1> |
| |
| <p align="center">(formerly known as boost::fsm)</p> |
| |
| <h2 align="center">Overview</h2> |
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| <h2>Contents</h2> |
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| <dl class="index"> |
| <dt><a href="#Overview">Overview</a></dt> |
| |
| <dd><a href="#SupportedPlatforms">Supported platforms</a></dd> |
| |
| <dd><a href="#GettingStarted">Getting started</a></dd> |
| |
| <dd><a href="#Audience">Audience</a></dd> |
| |
| <dt> </dt> |
| |
| <dt><a href="tutorial.html">Tutorial</a> [pdf: <a href= |
| "tutorial.pdf">English</a>, <a href= |
| "http://prdownloads.sourceforge.jp/jyugem/7127/fsm-tutorial-jp.pdf">Japanese</a>]</dt> |
| |
| <dt><a href="uml_mapping.html">UML to Boost.Statechart mapping |
| summary</a></dt> |
| |
| <dt><a href="faq.html">Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)</a></dt> |
| |
| <dt><a href="configuration.html">Configuration</a></dt> |
| |
| <dt><a href="definitions.html">Definitions</a></dt> |
| |
| <dt><a href="reference.html">Reference</a> [pdf: <a href= |
| "reference.pdf">English</a>]</dt> |
| |
| <dt><a href="rationale.html">Rationale</a> [pdf: <a href= |
| "rationale.pdf">English</a>]</dt> |
| |
| <dt><a href="performance.html">Performance</a></dt> |
| |
| <dt><a href="acknowledgments.html">Acknowledgments</a></dt> |
| |
| <dt><a href="future_and_history.html#ToDoList">To-do list</a></dt> |
| |
| <dt><a href="future_and_history.html#ChangeHistory">Change |
| history</a></dt> |
| </dl> |
| <hr> |
| |
| <h2><a name="Overview" id="Overview">Overview</a></h2> |
| |
| <p>Welcome to Boost.Statechart, a C++ library for finite state machines. |
| Features include:</p> |
| |
| <ul> |
| <li>Straightforward transformation from UML statechart to executable C++ |
| code and vice versa. Currently, this needs to be done manually both ways |
| but it should not be difficult to automate these tasks</li> |
| |
| <li>Comprehensive <a href= |
| "http://www.omg.org/cgi-bin/doc?formal/03-03-01">UML semantics</a> |
| support: |
| |
| <ul> |
| <li>Hierarchical (composite, nested) states</li> |
| |
| <li>Orthogonal (concurrent) states</li> |
| |
| <li>Entry-, exit- and transition-actions</li> |
| |
| <li>Guards</li> |
| |
| <li>Shallow/deep history</li> |
| |
| <li>Event deferral</li> |
| </ul> |
| </li> |
| |
| <li>Error handling support</li> |
| |
| <li>Maximum type-safety</li> |
| |
| <li>Compile-time statechart validation</li> |
| |
| <li>Support for asynchronous state machines and multi-threading</li> |
| |
| <li>State-local storage</li> |
| |
| <li>Generic design allowing for the customization of memory management, |
| error handling and threading</li> |
| </ul> |
| |
| <h3><a name="SupportedPlatforms" id="SupportedPlatforms">Supported |
| platforms</a></h3> |
| |
| <p>Whether and how Boost.Statechart will work on your platform is best |
| determined on the <a href= |
| "http://www.boost.org/development/tests/release/developer/statechart.html"> |
| release branch status page</a>. If the cells in your compilers column are |
| all green, the library should work as advertised. Cells of different color |
| indicate possible problems; follow the links for details. Before employing |
| the library I would also advise to run the tests (see <a href= |
| "#GettingStarted">Getting started</a>) on your particular platform in all |
| the modes (debug, release, etc.) that are later used during development |
| (the status page shows debug mode results only). The closer the test |
| compiler switches mirror the ones that are later used during development, |
| the less likely are future surprises. An example of such a surprise is |
| Intel 9.0 with MSVC 7.1 base toolset, where DllTestNormal and DllTestNative |
| pass in debug mode but fail in release mode.</p> |
| |
| <h3><a name="GettingStarted" id="GettingStarted">Getting started</a></h3> |
| |
| <ol> |
| <li>Follow the steps 1-4 described on the <a href= |
| "../../../more/getting_started.html">Boost Getting Started Page</a>. |
| Since Boost.Statechart is a header-only library, you should now know |
| enough to compile the examples in the tutorial in your favorite |
| environment (except PingPong which requires Boost.Thread binaries)</li> |
| |
| <li>Optional: If you want to compile the PingPong example or use <a href= |
| "reference.html#ClassTemplatefifo_scheduler">fifo_scheduler<></a> |
| in your project, you need to get hold of the Boost.Thread binaries and |
| link against them, see steps 5-6 on the Boost Getting Started Page</li> |
| |
| <li>Optional: If you want to run the tests, you need to get the bjam |
| executable, as described under step 5.2 on the Boost Getting Started |
| Page. After doing so, bjam should be installed in your <code>PATH</code>. |
| Open a command prompt and change the current directory to |
| <code>boost_1_38_0/libs/statechart/test</code>. Type |
| <pre> |
| bjam --toolset=<i>your-toolset</i> |
| </pre> |
| |
| <p>(where <code><i>your-toolset</i></code> is one of the names |
| documented under step 5.2.2 on the Boost Getting Started Page) and hit |
| CR. After the test run, failures (if any) are indicated at the end of |
| the output, in the form of a "<code>...failed updating X |
| targets...</code>" message. For some platforms certain failures are |
| expected, see <a href="#SupportedPlatforms">Supported |
| platforms</a>.</p> |
| </li> |
| </ol> |
| |
| <h3><a name="Audience" id="Audience">Audience</a></h3> |
| |
| <p>Throughout all Boost.Statechart documentation it is assumed that the |
| reader is familiar with the state machine concept, UML statecharts and most |
| of the UML state machine terminology. The following links might be |
| interesting if this is not the case:</p> |
| |
| <ul> |
| <li><a href= |
| "http://www.objectmentor.com/resources/articles/umlfsm.pdf">http://www.objectmentor.com/resources/articles/umlfsm.pdf</a> |
| introduces state machines and UML statecharts</li> |
| |
| <li><a href= |
| "http://www.sts.tu-harburg.de/teaching/ws-99.00/OOA+D/StateDiagrams.pdf">http://www.sts.tu-harburg.de/teaching/ws-99.00/OOA+D/StateDiagrams.pdf</a> |
| explains most of the UML statechart elements and terminology</li> |
| |
| <li>The inventor of statecharts, David Harel, presents a thorough but |
| still very readable discussion in his original paper: : <a href= |
| "http://www.wisdom.weizmann.ac.il/~dharel/SCANNED.PAPERS/Statecharts.pdf"> |
| http://www.wisdom.weizmann.ac.il/~dharel/SCANNED.PAPERS/Statecharts.pdf</a></li> |
| |
| <li>The UML specifications (formal) can be found here: <a href= |
| "http://www.omg.org/cgi-bin/doc?formal/03-03-01">http://www.omg.org/cgi-bin/doc?formal/03-03-01</a> |
| (see chapters 2.12 and 3.74)</li> |
| </ul> |
| |
| <p>Some of the used terminology cannot be found in the UML specifications, |
| please see <a href="definitions.html">Definitions</a> for more |
| information.</p> |
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| <p>Revised |
| <!--webbot bot="Timestamp" s-type="EDITED" s-format="%d %B, %Y" startspan -->09 April, 2007<!--webbot bot="Timestamp" endspan i-checksum="30014" --></p> |
| |
| <p><i>Copyright © 2003-<!--webbot bot="Timestamp" s-type="EDITED" s-format="%Y" startspan -->2007<!--webbot bot="Timestamp" endspan i-checksum="778" --> |
| <a href="contact.html">Andreas Huber Dönni</a></i></p> |
| |
| <p><i>Distributed under the Boost Software License, Version 1.0. (See |
| accompanying file <a href="../../../LICENSE_1_0.txt">LICENSE_1_0.txt</a> or |
| copy at <a href= |
| "http://www.boost.org/LICENSE_1_0.txt">http://www.boost.org/LICENSE_1_0.txt</a>)</i></p> |
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