The Propagation Rule Compiler is a tool supporting developers of Chimera applications during schema design and prototyping. The purpose of this tool is to analyze all deductive rules implementing derived concepts (attributes, classes, views, and constraints) in a particular Chimera schema in view of determining all implicit changes which can possibly be induced by these rules. Based on this analysis, PROP automatically generates triggers which are able to compute all implicit changes once a particular updating transaction has been issued.
In addition, PROP offers a kind of explanation facility. The analysis of the logical dependencies established via deductive rules can be exploited in view of making explicit in which way the various concepts in the schema under consideration depend on each other. Such dependencies and their interactions with the various forms of explicit and implicit updates affecting them are graphically represented and can be ``animated'' by simulating updates on an abstract level.
Both components have been implemented using ECLiPSe and Tcl/Tk and have been integrated with the Chimera Prototyping Tool.
You may...
Feel free to send a mail (idea@informatik.uni-bonn.de) if you have any questions, if you are interested in further discussion or have any problems in downloading a file. Otherwise, enjoy.