Automatic software production system

• US 8,365,138 B2
• Filed: 09/26/2008
• Issued: 01/29/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 04/04/2000
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: SOSY Incorporated
• Original Assignee: SOSY Incorporated
• Inventors: Iborra, Jose, Pastor, Oscar
• Primary Examiner(s): Vo, Ted T
• Application Number:
  US12/284,947
• Publication Number:
  US 20090132995A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,586 Days
• Field of Search: 717101-113
• US Class Current: 717/104
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/2365 Ensuring data consistency and integrity
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/30 Creation or generation of source code
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/35 model driven
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/73 Program documentation

Abstract

An automated software production system is provided, in which system requirements are captured, converted into a formal specification, and validated for correctness and completeness. In addition, a translator is provided to automatically generate a complete, robust software application based on the validated formal specification, including user-interface code and error handling code.

Claims

1. A process to use a computer to automatically translate a Formal Language Specification defining the functionality of a computer application program modeled in a Conceptual Model, into bug-free source code of a complete application program including a user interface and a database schema, said process comprising the steps of:

A) using a computer to automatically check statements in said Formal Language Specification against the rules of syntax and semantics of a formal language in which said Formal Language Specification is expressed thereby validating said Formal Language Specification to ensure said Formal Language Specification is complete in that there is no missing information in said Formal Language Specification and to ensure said Formal Language Specification is correct in that primitives of said conceptual model are syntactically and semantically consistent and not ambiguous;

B) translating said validated Formal Language Specification into computer readable source code which has the capability to control a computer to provide a user interface access mechanism to allow users to log in by entering at least identification data and to use said identification data to authenticate and validate a user as an instance of a class of the validated Formal Language Specification that act as agent in at least one agent relationship, said translating done using a computer to automatically retrieve information from said Formal Language Specification and storing said retrieved information in one or more code generation structures in memory of a computer, said code generation structures taking the form of class objects each of which has a code generation method, and using a method in a code generation class object to call the code generation method(s) of the code generation structures in a proper order to write one or more source code files that implement said user interface access mechanism;

C) translating said validated Formal Language Specification into computer readable code which has the capability to control a computer to provide a view of the system defining the set of objects and attributes the user can query and the set of services said user can execute, the content of said system view depending on the identity of said user accessing said application, said translating done using a computer to automatically retrieve information from said Formal Language Specification which expresses concepts in a Conceptual Model of said application in a Formal Language, and storing said retrieved information in one or more code generation structures in memory of a computer, said code generation structures taking the form of class objects each of which has a code generation method, and using a method in a code generation class object to call the code generation method(s) of said one or more code generation structures in a proper order to write one or more source code files that implement said capability to control a computer to provide a view of said system defining the set of objects and attributes said user can query and the set of services said user can execute; and

D) translating said validated Formal Language Specification into computer readable code which has the capability to control a computer to provide user interface interaction mechanisms to interact with and execute the functionality of the application in terms of performing queries on information managed by said application and executing services to modify the state of said information managed by said application, said services comprising events, local transactions and global transactions, said translating done using a computer to automatically retrieve information from said Formal Language Specification which expresses concepts in a Conceptual Model of said application in a Formal Language, and storing said retrieved information in one or more code generation structures in memory of a computer, said code generation structures taking the form of class objects each of which has a code generation method, and using a method in a code generation class object to call the code generation method(s) of said one or more code generation structures in a proper order to write one or more source code files that implement said application with capability to control a computer to provide user interface interaction mechanism to interact with and execute the functionality of said application and allow a user of said application to launch said queries and services.

2. The process of claim 1 wherein Step D comprises retrieving data from said Formal Language Specification for storage in said code generation structures which is such that, when said code generation method(s) of said code generation structure(s) are executed, said code generation methods(s) create computer readable source code which is structured so as to have the capability to control a computer so as to implement functionality of said queries as defined in said validated Formal Language Specification by means of well-formed formulas of Filter Expressions that define filter patterns representing said queries such that objects that satisfy said formula of said Filter Expression pass the filter and objects that do not fulfill the condition do not pass said filter, and said computer readable source code also structured so as to have the capability to control a computer so as to implement functionality of said services as defined in said validated Formal Language Specification said functionality comprising:

at least a valuation formula for each variable attribute of each class in said validated Formal Language Specification, each said valuation associated to at least an event of said class, said valuations altogether defining the functionality of every event;

a transaction formula that defines a composition of services into a molecular execution unit, thereby defining functionality of every local transaction and global transaction;

state transitions to control the valid lives for objects of each class in said validated Formal Language Specification, upon occurrence of an event or a local transaction;

formulas that define optional preconditions to the execution of services; and

formulas that define optional integrity constraints to prevent the execution of services from leaving the information managed by said application in an inconsistent or invalid state.

3. The process of claim 2 wherein the steps in step D comprise using said computer to automatically retrieve information from said Formal Language Specification the information retrieved being such as to create said code generation structures structured with data such that when said code generation method(s) of said code generation structure(s) are executed, said code generation methods(s) generate(s) computer readable source code which is structured to control a computer to allow a logged on user to interact with and execute the functionality of a query by defining a well-formed formula that defines a Filter Expression which defines how objects in a multi-object society are filtered as part of said query, said query capable of being carried out either independently or by a Class Population Presentation pattern type of user interface of a class of said application which defines which and how objects from the class are displayed, and wherein said source code is further structured to control said computer so as to provide a user interface mechanism to allow a user to provide content to construct a message containing parameters needed to construct said well-formed formula so as to define filter criteria used by said Filter Expression for a filter which is part of said Class Population Presentation pattern, and wherein said source code is further structured to control a computer so as to send said message so as to cause execution of said query embodied in said Filter Expression and display objects which pass said filter, said class queried being a class to which a user of said application has access, and wherein said computer readable source code is also structured to control a computer to display objects in said class which pass said Filter Expression in accordance with a display set and order criterion of a Population Selection pattern for said class which defines how properties of multiple objects of one class are presented to a user, and said source code being structured to control a computer to allow a user to select an object from said class from the objects displayed in accordance with said Class Population Presentation pattern, and, once an object is selected, said source code is structured to allow a user of said application to observe related instances, and know which services can be launched for a given object in its current state and display a visual component that a user can use to launch said services, and wherein said source code is also structured to control a computer to provide initialization arguments for object-valued arguments of said service to be launched, and check any input arguments entered by a user to launch said service so as to make sure input arguments entered by said user are valid data types for the arguments the data is intended to supply and that the input argument data entered by said user are within valid ranges for the arguments the user input data is intended to fill, and wherein said source code is structured to control a computer to check for dependencies between arguments of said service to be launched, and if a dependency exists and a user input triggers a dependency, said computer readable source code is structured to control a computer to display an appropriate form requesting the user to input data to satisfy the dependency and check that the data input by said user is a valid data type for said argument and within an acceptable range for said argument.

4. The process of claim 1 wherein said step B comprises using said computer to automatically retrieve data from said Formal Language Specification which is such as to create said code generation structures such that when said code generation method(s) of said code generation structure(s) are executed, said code generation methods(s) create computer readable source code which has the capability to control a computer to provide user interface access mechanisms which block access to potential users of said application such that only an “

accountuser”

can connect or log on to said desired computer program, said control being performed by requesting that a user wishing to log onto said desired computer program prove he or she is said “

accountuser”

by entering information that identifies a class of which said user is an instance, and also indicates information that identifies the user as an instance of said class so as to identify said user, and also indicates information that is used as a password for that user so as to authenticate said user.

5. The process of claim 1 wherein said step C comprises carrying out said translating by using a computer for automatically retrieving information from said Formal Language Specification so as to create said code generation structures such that when said code generation method(s) of said code generation structure(s) are executed, said code generation methods(s) creates computer readable source code which has the capability to control a computer to provide said view of the system in such a manner that said view of the system includes user interaction mechanisms included in Action Selection Presentation patterns associated with said view of the system for which said application is produced such that final actions objects defined in said Formal Language Specification may be viewed.

6. The process of claim 5 wherein step C comprises carrying out said translating by using a computer for automatically retrieving information from said Formal Language Specification to create said code generation structures each of which has a code generation method, and which, when said code generation method(s) of said code generation structure(s) are executed, said code generation methods(s) creates computer readable source code which has the capability to control a computer to restrict the user interface interaction mechanisms to the ones the user who logged on is allowed to interact with according to privileges established by data structures which relate the class said user belongs to, playing the role of agent, with classes, playing the role of servers, that determine which services of each server class will be available for execution by said user and which attributes of each server class said user will be able to query.

7. The process of claim 1 wherein step D comprises carrying out using said computer to automatically retrieve data from said Formal Language Specification which is such that when said code generation method(s) of said code generation structure(s) are executed, said code generation methods(s) creates computer readable source code which has the capability to control a computer to provide user interface interaction mechanisms taking the form of Service Presentation patterns, Instance Presentation patterns, Class Population Presentation patterns, and Master-Detail Presentation patterns which allow a user who has logged on to interact with and access functionality of said application by invoking services, executing queries and/or execution of user interface interaction scenarios.

8. The process of claim 7 wherein step D comprises automatically retrieving information from said Formal Language Specification which is such as to create said code generation structures structured such that, when said code generation method(s) of said code generation structure(s) are executed, said code generation methods(s) create computer readable source code which has the capability to control a computer to provide user interface interaction mechanisms which allow a user who has logged in to interact with and access the functionality of said application by execution of only selected services selected from a group of services comprising events, local transactions and/or global transactions and wherein said selected services which said user who has logged on can invoke depend upon the identity of said user.

9. The process of claim 8 where the steps in step D of translating said Formal Language Specification comprises using a computer for automatically retrieving information from said Formal Language Specification to create said code generation structures which are structured such that when said code generation method(s) of said code generation structure(s) are executed, said code generation methods(s) generate computer readable source code which is structured to control a computer to allow a logged on user to execute an event which said logged on user has privileges to execute, said source code structured to control a computer to provide a mechanism to construct a message associated to said event and which will be sent to an object server implemented in said source code which executes said event.

10. The process of claim 9 wherein said step D comprises retrieving data which is such as to create said code generation structures which are structured such that when said code generation method(s) of said code generation structure(s) are executed, said code generation methods(s) generate computer readable source code which is structured to control a computer to provide a mechanism to construct said message associated to said event by performing the following steps:

providing a mechanism to identify the class object on which the event will be executed, except if said event is a creation event, in which case this step will be omitted;

providing mechanisms to give a value to every argument of said event, said mechanisms further controlling said computer such that arguments that require a value are provided a value and controlling said computer to provide restrictions and monitoring which are such that any argument whose value is provided is guaranteed to receive a valid value.

11. The process of claim 9 wherein said step D includes the steps of automatically retrieving information from said Formal Language Specification which is such as to create said code generation structures which are structured such that when said code generation method(s) of said code generation structure(s) are executed, computer readable source code is automatically generated which has the capability to control a computer to provide a mechanism to execute a service which is an event and by performing the following steps:

controlling a computer to provide a mechanism to, except in the case of a creation event, verify the existence of said object on which said event will be executed, or the non-existence of the object to be created in the case of a creation event;

controlling a computer to provide a mechanism to, except in the case of a creation event, recover the state of the object on which the event is executed from whatever memory or database or repository or any other persistence means (hereafter just “

memory”

) to which said state of said object has been saved;

controlling a computer to provide a mechanism to verify that, according to the state transition diagram of the class owning said event, there is a valid state transition labelled with said event being executed and for the agent class to which the user belongs who logged onto said application, in which case said mechanism will update the state of the object on which the event is executed according to said state transition diagram, and if there is no valid state transition, said mechanism will produce an error message causing the execution of the event to stop and roll back all changes made to the state of the object on which said event is executed;

controlling a computer to provide a mechanism to verify that every precondition that is defined for said event being executed and for said agent class to which the user logged on to the computer application belongs, is satisfied, and should any of said preconditions not be satisfied, then said mechanism will produce an error with the error message being predefined for said precondition that does not hold causing the execution of the event to stop and roll back all changes made to the state of said object on which said event is executed;

except in the case of creation events or destruction events, controlling a computer to provide a mechanism to produce the changes of values to the variable attributes of said class owning said event for which valuation formulas in said functional model have been defined such that said valuations relate said variable attributes with the event being executed, and wherein said mechanism applies only the changes to the variable attributes which are required by valuation formulas of valuations whose valuation condition formula evaluates to true, if any, or the change required by a valuation formula of a valuation having no valuation condition formula;

in the case of a creation event, controlling a computer to provide a mechanism to assign a value to every constant or variable attribute of an object on which said creation event is executed and establishing relationships between said object on which said creation event is executed with objects of classes related with the class owning said creation event;

in the case of a destruction event, controlling a computer to provide a mechanism to delete relationships of the object on which said destruction event is executed with objects said object is related to;

except in the case of destruction events, controlling a computer to provide a mechanism to check that every integrity constraint define d in the class owning said event is satisfied, for the object whose state has been changed by said event, and should any of said integrity constraints not be satisfied, said mechanism will produce an error with the error message predefined for said integrity constraint that does not hold, said mechanism causing the execution of the event to stop and roll back all changes made to the state of the object on which the event is executed;

except in the case of a destruction event, controlling a computer to provide a mechanism to save the changes made to said object on which the event is executed to memory;

in the case of a destruction event, controlling a computer to provide a mechanism to delete the object on which said destruction event is executed from memory to which said object has been saved;

except in the case of a destruction event, controlling a computer to provide a mechanism to check every trigger condition on said object on which said event is executed for every trigger relationship defined on said class owning said event, and wherein for every trigger condition that holds, a mechanism to execute the service associated to said trigger relationship by;

providing a mechanism to determine the set of objects on which said service associated to said trigger will be executed, and

executing said service on every object of said set of objects by;

giving a value to every argument of said service, and ensuring that every argument that requires a value is provided a value and that any argument whose value is provided receives a valid value; and

invoking the execution of said service on said object;

and

controlling a computer to provide a mechanism to inform the requestor of the result of executing the event.

12. The process of claim 8 where the steps in step D comprise using a computer for automatically retrieving information from said Formal Language Specification which is such as to create said code generation structures which are such that, when said code generation method(s) of said code generation structure(s) are executed, computer readable source code is generated which controls a computer to provide a mechanism to construct a message associated to said local transaction which contains the arguments needed by the services comprising said local transaction and to send said message to one or more object servers which serve to execute said local transaction.

13. The process of claim 12 wherein the steps in step D comprise using a computer for automatically retrieving information from said Formal Language Specification which is such as to create said code generation structures which are structured such that when said code generation method(s) of said code generation structure(s) are executed, said code generation methods(s) generate computer readable source code which controls a computer to provide a mechanism to construct said message associated to the local transaction by performing the following steps:

providing a mechanism to identify the object on which said local transaction will be primarily executed, except if said transaction is a creation service, in which case this step will be omitted;

providing mechanisms to give a value to every argument of said local transaction, said mechanisms further controlling said computer such that restrictions and monitoring are implemented such that arguments that require a value are provided a value and that any argument whose value is provided is guaranteed to receive a valid value.

14. The process of claim 12 wherein said step D comprises using a computer for automatically retrieving information from said Formal Language Specification to create said code generation structures which are structured such that when said code generation method(s) of said code generation structure(s) are executed, said code generation methods(s) generate computer readable source code which has the capability to control a computer to execute a service which is a local transaction by performing the following steps:

providing a mechanism to, except in the case of a creation service, verify the existence of the object on which the local transaction will be executed or, in the case of a creation service, verify the non-existence of the object to be created;

except in the case of a creation service, providing a mechanism to recover the state of the object on which the local transaction is executed from memory to which the state of said object has been saved;

providing a mechanism to verify that, according to a state transition diagram of the class owning said local transaction, there is a valid state transition labelled with said local transaction being executed and for an agent class to which the user logged on to the system belongs, and, if there is such a valid state transition, said mechanism will update the state of the object on which the local transaction is executed according to said state transition diagram, and, if there is no such valid state transition, said mechanism will produce an error message causing the execution of said local transaction to stop and roll back all changes made to the state of said object on which the local transaction is executed and of any other object the state of which has been modified by the execution of said local transaction;

providing a mechanism to verify that every precondition that is defined for the local transaction being executed and for the agent class to which the user logged on to the system belongs, is satisfied, and should any of said preconditions not hold, then said mechanism will produce an error with the error message defined for said precondition that does not hold causing the execution of said local transaction to stop and roll back all changes made to the state of the object on which said local transaction is executed and of any other object the state of which has been modified by the execution of said local transaction;

for every service comprised in the transaction formula of said local transaction being executed;

if said service has an associated guard, controlling a computer to provide a mechanism to check that said guard associated to said service holds; and

if said guard does not hold, the rest of the steps associated to said service will be omitted;

controlling a computer to provide a mechanism to determine the set of objects on which said service comprised in said transaction formula will be executed and to provide a mechanism to execute said service on every object of said set of objects by;

providing mechanisms to give a value to every argument of said service, said mechanisms further ensuring that arguments that require a value are provided a value and that any argument whose value is provided receives a valid value;

providing a mechanism to invoke the execution of said service on said object and control the result of said execution, and should said execution result in an error, causing the execution of the local transaction to stop and roll back all changes made to the state of said object on which the local transaction is executed and of any other object the state of which has been modified by the execution of said local transaction

controlling a computer to provide a mechanism to check that every integrity constraint holds which is defined in the class owning the local transaction and in classes whose instances include objects the state of which has been modified by the execution of said local transaction, for any object whose state has been changed by said local transaction, and, should any of said integrity constraints not hold, said mechanism produces an error with an error message defined for said integrity constraint that does not hold and causing the execution of said local transaction to stop and roll back all changes made to the state of the object on which the local transaction is executed and of any other object the state of which has been modified by the execution of said local transaction;

controlling a computer to provide a mechanism to check every trigger condition on any object the state of which has been modified by the execution of said local transaction, for every trigger relationship defined on each class owning an object the state of which has been changed by execution of said local transaction, and for every trigger condition that holds, a mechanism to execute the service associated to said trigger relationship by;

providing a mechanism to determine the set of objects on which said service associated to said trigger will be executed, and

providing a mechanism to execute said service on every object of said set of objects by;

giving a value to every argument of said service, and ensuring that every argument that requires a value is provided a value and that any argument whose value is provided receives a valid value; and

invoking the execution of said service on said object;

and

controlling a computer to provide a mechanism so as to inform the requestor of the result of executing said local transaction.

15. The process of claim 8 wherein the steps in step D comprise using a computer for automatically retrieving information from said Formal Language Specification to create said code generation structures which are structured such that, when said code generation method(s) of said code generation structure(s) are executed, said code generation methods(s) generate computer readable source code which controls a computer to allow a logged on user to interact with and execute the functionality associated to a global transaction by providing a mechanism to construct the message associated to said global transaction and send said message to one or more object servers to execute said global transaction.

16. The process of claim 15 wherein the steps in step D comprise using a computer for automatically retrieving information from said Formal Language Specification which is such as to create said code generation structures which are structured such that, when said code generation method(s) of said code generation structure(s) are executed, said code generation methods(s) generate computer readable source code which controls a computer to provide mechanisms to give a value to every argument of said global transaction, said mechanisms further controlling said computer such that restrictions and validity checking are performed on the supplied values such that arguments that require a value are provided a value and that any argument whose value is provided is guaranteed to receive a valid value.

17. The process of claim 15 wherein said step D comprises using a computer to automatically retrieve data from said Formal Language Specification for storage in said code generation structures, said data being such as to structure said code generating structures so as to generate computer readable source code which is structured to control a computer to execute a service which is a global transaction by performing the following steps:

controlling a computer to provide a mechanism to verify that every precondition that is defined for the global transaction being executed and for the agent class the user logged on to the system belongs to, is satisfied, and should any of said preconditions not hold, then said mechanism will produce an error and display an error message which has a predefined message with content which is determined by said precondition that does not hold, and said source code being structured to control said computer to stop execution of said global transaction and reverse all changes made to any object the state of which has been modified by execution of said global transaction;

for every service included in a transaction formula that defines the services and arguments that comprise said global transaction being executed;

if said service has an associated guard or control condition, said source code is structured to control a computer to provide a mechanism to check that said guard associated to said service holds, and if said guard does not hold, the rest of the steps required to be carried out as part of execution of said service will be omitted;

controlling a computer to provide a mechanism to determine the set of objects on which said service will be executed and to execute said service on every object of said set of objects by performing the following steps;

give a value to every argument of said service, and controlling said computer to implement restrictions and monitoring to ensure that arguments that require a value are provided a value and that any argument whose value is provided is guaranteed to receive a valid value;

controlling a computer to build a message containing the arguments needed by said service and to send said message to an object server which executes said service so as to invoke the execution of said service on said object and control the result of said execution, and should said execution result in an error, controlling said computer to stop the execution of said global transaction and reverse all changes made to the state of any object the state of which has been modified by the execution of said global transaction;

controlling a computer to check that every integrity constraint still holds for every integrity constraint that is defined in classes whose instances include objects the state of which might have been modified by the execution of said global transaction, for any object whose state has been changed by said global transaction, and should any of said integrity constraints not hold, controlling a computer to generate an error and display an error message which has been predefined for said integrity constraint that does not hold and controlling said computer to stop execution of said global transaction and reverse all changes made to any object the state of which has been modified by execution of said global transaction;

controlling a computer to check every trigger condition on any object the state of which has been modified by execution of said global transaction, and, for every trigger condition that holds, controlling a computer to execute the service defined by said trigger by performing the following steps;

controlling a computer to determine a set of objects upon which said service defined by said trigger will be executed, and

a controlling a computer to execute said service on every object of said set of objects by;

controlling a computer to give a value to every argument of said service, and implementing restrictions and monitoring to ensure that every argument that requires a value is provided a value and that any argument whose value is provided is guaranteed to receive a valid value; and

controlling a computer to construct a message containing said arguments and send it to an object server capable of carrying out said service thereby invoking the execution of said service on said object;

and

controlling a computer to provide a mechanism so as to display or otherwise indicate the result of executing said global transaction.

18. The process of claim 1 wherein said step D comprises using a computer for automatically retrieving information from said Formal Language Specification which is such as to create said code generation structures having data stored therein which causes said code generation method(s) of said code generation structure(s) to generate computer readable source code for said application which is structured to control a computer to perform the following steps:

providing a mechanism in the form of a displayed graphic item such as a dialog box showing the filter conditions a user has the option to set to define a well-formed formula which defines a Filter Expression for a query said user of said application wants said application to execute;

controlling a computer to receive a value supplied by a user for every filter variable which can be set by a user, said filter variables which can be set by a user being part of said well-formed formula defining the search criteria represented by said Filter Expression said filter variables representing the query desired by said user, said computer readable source code also structured to further control said computer such that filter variables that require a value are provided a value either automatically from data in said Formal Language Specification or from data supplied by said user, and to further control said computer such that any filter variable whose value is provided by a user of said application is required by said application to receive a valid value and to reject any invalid value thereby forcing said user to supply a valid value;

providing a user interface mechanism to allow a user to select a desired Display Set user interface pattern controlling what information is displayed from objects that pass said Filter Expression as a result of performing said query and displaying a visual component that shows objects that fulfil the filter condition expressed in said well-formed formula represented by said Filter Expression;

controlling a computer to display a user interface mechanism such as selection options in a dialog box to allow a user to select user interface patterns to use in supplying values to filter variables to define said well formed formula defining said Filter Expression, if any, to be used by said application in performing said query including edit-masks and range-value restrictions in an Introduction Patterns and a Defined Selection pattern with specified sets of pre-specified valid values from which filter variables may be selected;

controlling a computer to display a visual component to show objects that pass the filter of said Filter Expression or all the population of the class upon which said query is executed if no Filter Expression is defined and in use where the attributes displayed in said visual component are established by said Display Set user interface pattern selected by said user of said application.

19. The process of claim 1 wherein said step D comprises using a computer to automatically retrieve information from said Formal Language Specification so as to create code generation structures structured with data from said Formal Language Specification which is such that, when said code generation method(s) of said code generation structure(s) are executed, said code generation methods(s) generate computer readable source code which is structured to control a computer to provide a mechanism to execute a query represented by a well-formed formula which defines a Filter Expression by performing the following steps:

controlling a computer to provide a Class Population Presentation pattern user interface to display the population of instances of the class owning said Filter Expression;

controlling a computer to provide a user interface mechanism to display instances of said population of said class which satisfy the condition(s) stated in said well-formed formula that defines said Filter Expression;

depending on the values assigned to every filter variable of said Filter Expression;

controlling a computer to provide a user interface mechanism in the form of a Population Selection pattern having said Filter Expression and a display set as part thereof, said Display Set controlling which part is displayed of the state of every instance of said class which satisfy said condition(s) stated by said well-formed formula of said Filter Expression owned by said class and which is part of said Population Selection pattern user interface defined for said class, said part of said state which is displayed being controlled by said Display Set which was selected in said message constructed by said computer as a response to input data entered by said user in filling out said query/selection form, said part of said state dictated by said Display Set being further constrained to the attributes said user logged onto said application is allowed to query;

controlling a computer to display the instances of said population of said class owning said Filter Expression which fulfil said condition stated by said well-formed formula that defines said Filter Expression, the nature of said display defined by said Population Selection Pattern and, if an Order Criteria has been selected by said message as part of said Population Selection Pattern, displaying said instances of said population which fulfil said condition stated by said Filter Expression in the order stated by said Order Criteria pattern.

20. The process of claim 1 wherein step D comprises using said computer to automatically retrieve data from said Formal Language Specification and storing said data in said code generation structures so as to create code generation structure which are structured such that said code generation methods(s) generate computer readable source code of said application which is structured to control a computer to provide user interface interaction mechanisms which allow a user who has logged on to said application to execute services of classes of objects created by said application which said user has privileges to access and to execute queries on said classes of objects which said user has privileges to access, said execution of services and queries carried out by said user by interacting with one or more user interfaces in the form of Service Presentation patterns which controls how a service will obtain data from said user using said computer, Instance Presentation patterns each of which controls how properties of objects in a class owning said Instance Presentation pattern will be presented to said user, Class Population Presentation patterns each of which control how the properties of multiple objects of a class owning said Class Population Presentation pattern will be presented to said user and/or Master/Detail Presentation patterns which control how an object will be displayed which is related to other related objects that complete the full detail of the object, and wherein step D further comprises using a computer to automatically write computer readable source code structured to control a computer executing said application to display an application main form containing a menu showing the services a user who has logged onto said application has access to and can execute, said computer readable source code also structured to control said computer such that when a user requests to activate a service and supplies arguments needed by said service, said computer automatically validates service arguments entered by said user, and, if said service arguments are found to be valid, said source code is structured to control said computer so as to automatically build a message to supply said validated services arguments to the appropriate object server which executes said service, said object server being part of system logic implemented by said source code of said application, said object server functioning to carry out said service, and wherein said computer readable source code is also structured to control said computer executing said service to inform said user of said application whether said service execution succeeded or failed, and for each said service, said computer readable source code is structured to control a computer to carry out said step of validation of said service arguments by displaying a service form which points to the appropriate object server to carry out said service and which has an introduction field for each argument the user must provide, and controlling said computer to carry out said step of validating said service arguments by validating data types, sizes, value-ranges and nulls in user input data entered by said user to fill in service arguments, and wherein said automatically generated computer readable source code is also structured to control said computer to search object browsing information and filter said object browsing information for object-valued fields.

21. The process of claim 20 wherein the steps in step D of translating said validated formal language specification to generate computer readable source code include steps of using a computer to automatically extract the necessary information from said Formal Language Specification so as to structure said code generation structures such that when said code generation method(s) of said code generation structure(s) are executed, computer readable source code is generated which is structured to control a computer to allow a logged on user to interact with an interaction scenario corresponding to said Master/Detail Presentation Pattern so as to query information on:

instances belonging to the class owning said Master/Detail Presentation Pattern as presented in a Presentation Pattern which is either an Instance Presentation Pattern or a Class Population Presentation Pattern owned by the same class owning said Master/Detail Presentation Pattern, and

instances belonging to other classes related to said class owning said Master/Detail Presentation Pattern, each set of related instances as presented by a Presentation Pattern, which is either an Instance Presentation Pattern, or a Class Population Presentation Pattern, or a Master/Detail Presentation Pattern owned by said class related to said class owning said Master Presentation Pattern,

said steps of translating comprising the steps of;

translating said validated formal language specification so as to provide computer readable source code which is structured to control a computer to provide a mechanism to identify said Master/Detail Population Presentation Pattern by its alias;

translating said validated formal language specification so as to provide computer readable source code which is structured to control a computer to provide a mechanism to present said user any help message associated with said Master/Detail Presentation Pattern;

translating said validated formal language specification so as to provide computer readable source code which is structured to control a computer to provide a mechanism to present said user a master interaction unit in which a single object is displayed or in which a collection of objects is displayed from which the user can select one of the displayed objects, the details of the display of said single object or said collection of objects controlled respectively by an Instance Presentation Pattern of said Master/Detail Presentation Pattern or by a Class Population Presentation Pattern of said Master/Detail Presentation Pattern;

translating said validated formal language specification so as to provide computer readable source code which is structured to control a computer to provide a mechanism to present said user with one or more detail interaction units in which are displayed objects related to said object displayed and/or selected in said master interaction unit, the details of said objects displayed in said detail interaction units being controlled each by an Instance Presentation Pattern or a Class Population Presentation Pattern or a Master-Detail Presentation Pattern;

translating said validated formal language specification so as to provide computer readable source code which is structured to control a computer to provide a mechanism to synchronize information displayed in every detail interaction unit whenever;

the object displayed in said master interaction unit changes when said master interaction unit is an Instance Presentation Pattern, or

the selection of one of the objects displayed in said master interaction unit changes when said master interaction unit is a Class Population Presentation Pattern;

translating said validated formal language specification so as to provide computer readable code which is structured to control a computer to provide a mechanism to cancel the interaction of the logged on user with the interaction units presented by said Master/Detail Presentation Pattern.

22. The process of claim 20 wherein the steps in step D of translating said validated Formal Language Specification comprise using a computer to automatically extract requirements data from said Formal Language Specification and store said extracted requirements data in code generation structures in memory of a computer, said extracted requirements data including, for each service which a user who has successfully logged on can launch:

a service to generate;

a service class;

an arguments list for said service;

and, for generation of a query/selection form for each class;

the class and its properties including its alias;

a list of the Population Selection interface patterns defined for the class, each said Population Selection interface pattern containing a Display Set, a Filter Expression and a sort criterion;

relationships of the class;

said extracted requirements data structuring said code generation structures such that when said code generation method(s) of said code generation structure(s) are executed, said extracted requirements data is plugged into blanks in source code templates stored in said code generation structures so as to generate computer readable source code which is structured to control a computer to allow a user to;

query information on a set of objects in a class,

launch services on any object in said set of objects, and

navigate to other related objects related to a selected object of said set of objects,

and wherein said source code also being structured to control a computer to allow a user to perform the above noted operations by interaction with an Application Main Form which is a menu where a user who has successfully logged on can view the services he or she is allowed to launch, said source code also being structured to control a computer to implement each action a user can request from said Application Main Form, said source code also structured to iterate through the services defined in said application computer program and determine the services a user who has logged onto said application computer program can launch, and then generate said Application Main Form as an access hierarchy and convert said access hierarchy to menu bars, http pages or any other structure which allows browsing so as to create an access tree wherein, for each class, a tree item is displayed labelled with the alias of said class, said tree item having descendant menu items which can be selected by said user which include;

a menu item labelled “

query”

which, when selected, causes said computer to display said query/selection form with a filter having filter variables a user can set to define filter criteria so as to restrict objects from said class which will be displayed in a Service Form;

a menu item for each service of said class which said logged on user can launch, said menu item labelled with the service alias; and

in the case of an inheritance relationship with other classes, a menu item is displayed with for each direct subclass labelled with the subclass alias;

and wherein said source code is also structured to control a computer to generate a Service Form for every service a user who has successfully logged on can launch, said Service Form functioning to, inter alia, locate and point to object server code which is structured to control a computer to execute said service and comprising a graphic part and a functional part, said source code of said Service Form structured to control a computer to;

display said graphic part of said Service Form with a widget attached to each service argument that needs user input to receive data for said service argument from said user, and a pair of widgets to launch said service or cancel the service launch;

implement said functional part as

event-drivers for said widgets to receiver data for said service arguments from said user and to launch or cancel the launch of said service;

one or more processes to initialize the properties of said widgets with default values by initial default values input by a designer when said Conceptual Model was being designed, by context where object-valued arguments are set with values by search for appropriate values in a recently visited objects list or by Dependency Pattern defined by said Designer such that the value of one service argument determines the value of another service argument;

one or more processes to validate any values for said service arguments introduced by said user to ensure the data type, size and value range are correct and, if a particular service argument is a null, determine whether a null is acceptable for that service argument, and display an error message if any service argument does not pass validation;

one or more processes to build a message including said service arguments that have been validated and send said message to object server code pointed to by said Service Form which is structured to control a computer to execute said service and invoke said object server code into execution thereby launching said service; and

report back to said user the results of execution of said service and display an error message if an error occurred.

23. The process of claim 20 wherein step D comprises using said computer to automatically retrieve data from said Formal Language Specification and storing said data in said code generation structures so as to create code generation structures which are structured such that said code generation methods(s) generate computer readable source code of said application which is structured to control a computer to provide user interface interaction mechanisms which allow a user who has logged on to said application to query information on an instance of a class, execute services on said instance and/or navigate to interaction scenarios displaying information related with said instance, by interaction with an Instance Presentation Pattern of the class owning said instance, said source code structured to control said computer to carry out steps including:

controlling said computer to provide a mechanism to identify said Instance Presentation Pattern by its alias;

controlling said computer to present a help message, if any, associated with said Instance Presentation Pattern;

controlling said computer to provide a mechanism to present said user with the value of each element in the Display Set Pattern of said Instance Presentation Pattern, each element identified by the alias of said element and presented in the order dictated by said Display Set Pattern, said elements being further restricted to those elements that correspond to attributes the logged on user is allowed to query;

controlling said computer to provide a mechanism to access each user interface interaction scenarios corresponding to each service that can be executed on the object displayed by said Instance Presentation Pattern, each of said services identified by the alias of the Service Presentation Pattern corresponding to each of said services, said services being further restricted to the ones the logged on user is allowed to execute;

controlling said computer to provide a mechanism to present said user with a help message associated with each service, if any, executable on said object displayed by said Instance Presentation Pattern;

controlling said computer to provide a mechanism to access each user interface interaction scenario corresponding to each class, if any, owning instances related with the instance belonging to the class owning said Instance Presentation Pattern, each of said user interface interaction scenarios being identified by the alias of its corresponding Presentation Pattern, said user interface interaction scenarios being further restricted to the ones corresponding to classes said logged on user is allowed to query;

controlling said computer to provide a mechanism to present said user with any help message associated with each of said user interface interaction scenarios corresponding to each class, if any, owning instances related with instance belonging to the class owning said Instance Presentation Pattern;

and

controlling said computer to provide a mechanism to cancel the interaction of the logged on user with the user interface interaction scenario represented by said Instance Presentation Pattern.

24. The process of claim 20 wherein step D comprises using said computer to automatically retrieve data from said Formal Language Specification and storing said data in said code generation structures so as to create code generation structures which are structured such that said code generation methods(s) generate computer readable source code of said application structured to control a computer to provide user interface interaction mechanisms which allow a user who has logged on to said application to allow a logged on user to query information on a set of instances of a class, execute services on any instance in said set and or navigate to interaction scenarios displaying information related with any said instance of said set, all by interaction with a Class Population Presentation Pattern of the class owning said set of instances, said source code structured to control said computer to carry out steps including:

controlling said computer to provide a mechanism to identify said Class Population Presentation Pattern by its alias;

controlling said computer to provide a mechanism to present any help message associated with said Class Population Presentation Pattern;

controlling said computer to provide a set of mechanisms to obtain and display a set of instances of the class owning said Class Population Presentation Pattern, comprising;

a mechanism to identify the Filter Pattern, if any, associated with said Class Population Presentation Pattern;

a mechanism to identify and select one of the Order Criterion Patterns, if any, associated to said Class Population Presentation Pattern;

a mechanism to identify each filter variable, if any, of said Filter Pattern, if any, associated to said Class Population Presentation Pattern, said identification by the alias of each of said filter variables, and to present said filter variables to said user in the order they are defined in said Filter Pattern;

a mechanism to present said user a default value, if any default value exists in said Formal Language Specification, of each filter Variable, if any, of said Filter Pattern, if any, associated to said Class Population Presentation Pattern;

a mechanism to let said user provide a value for each filter variable, if any, of said Filter Pattern, if any, associated to said Class Population Presentation Pattern;

a mechanism to validate the value assigned to each filter variable by said user, if any value is assigned to a filter variable, of said Filter Pattern, if any, associated to said Class Population Presentation Pattern, said validation carried out according to;

the data type of said filter variable;

what is dictated by the Introduction Pattern, if any, associated to said filter variable;

a mechanism to access an objects selection mechanism corresponding to a Population Selection Pattern which defines the process of observing and selecting objects in a multiple objects society, said Population Selection Pattern being associated to every object valuated filter variable, if any, of said Filter Pattern, if any, associated to said Class Population Presentation Pattern;

a mechanism to present said user with a help message, if any, associated to each filter variable, if any, of said Filter Pattern, if any, associated to said Class Population Presentation Pattern;

a mechanism to present said user with elements in any Display Set Pattern assigned as a Supplementary Information Pattern to every object valuated filter variable, if any, of said Filter Pattern, if any, associated to said Class Population Presentation Pattern, whenever the value of said object valuated filter variable changes;

a mechanism to invoke execution of a query represented by said Filter Pattern, if any, associated with said Class Population Presentation Pattern so as to retrieve objects of said class owning said Class Population Presentation Pattern which satisfy the search criteria of said Filter Pattern, or to invoke retrieval of the full population of said class owning said Class Population Presentation Pattern where no Filter Pattern is present;

controlling said computer to provide a mechanism to display the value of each element, for every instance in the population of said class owning said Class Population Presentation Pattern, or to display the value for every instance of said class returned as a result of executing said query represented by said Filter Pattern, if any, associated with said Class Population Presentation Pattern, each element so displayed being a member of a Display Set Pattern associated to said Class Population Presentation Pattern, each element the value of which is displayed being restricted to those elements corresponding to attributes the logged on user is allowed to query;

controlling a computer to provide a mechanism for said user to select one of the objects or instances presented to the user by said Class Population Presentation Pattern as a result of a query that returns some or all of the instances of said class owning said Class Population Presentation Pattern;

controlling a computer to provide a mechanism to, upon selection of one of said objects presented by said Class Population Presentation Pattern, access each of said user interface interaction scenarios corresponding to each service that can be executed on said selected object, each of said services identified by the alias of the Service Presentation Pattern corresponding to each of said services, said services further restricted to the services the logged on user is allowed to execute;

controlling a computer to provide a mechanism to present said user with any help message associated with each service executable on said selected object;

controlling a computer to provide a mechanism to, upon selection of one of said objects presented by said Class Population Presentation Pattern, access each of said user interface interaction scenarios corresponding to each class, if any, owning instances related with said selected object of said class owning said Class Population Presentation Pattern, each of said user interface interaction scenarios being identified by the alias of its corresponding Presentation Pattern, said user interface interaction scenarios being further restricted to the ones corresponding to classes said logged on user is allowed to query;

controlling said computer to provide a mechanism to present said user any help message associated with each of said user interface interaction scenarios corresponding to each class, if any, owning instances related with said selected object of said class owning said Class Population Presentation Pattern; and

controlling said computer to provide a mechanism to cancel the interaction of the logged on user with the interface interaction scenario represented by said Class Population Presentation Pattern.

25. The process of claim 1 wherein the steps in step D of translating said validated formal language specification comprise using a computer for automatically retrieving information from said Formal Language Specification which structures said code generation structures such that when said code generation method(s) of said code generation structure(s) are executed, computer readable source code is generated which is structured to control a computer to allow a user to invoke execution of a service by presenting to a user an activation service form which allows a user to supply argument data, the format of said activation service form dictated by a Service Presentation Pattern owned by said service to be activated, said source code structured to control said computer to carry out steps including:

controlling said computer to provide a user interface mechanism allowing a user to identify a Service Presentation Pattern by its alias;

controlling a computer to provide a mechanism to present a help message which is part of said Service Presentation Pattern to said user interacting with said Service Presentation Pattern to help said user fill in arguments needed by the service to be executed;

controlling a computer to display or otherwise present information allowing a user to identify each argument of said service owning said Service Presentation Pattern by the alias of each said argument of said service;

controlling a computer to display a service activation form to present to a user information identifying each argument needed for execution by said service owning said Service Presentation Pattern and presenting said arguments in an order and in groups dictated by an Arguments Grouping Presentation pattern (if any);

controlling a computer to receive and store input data entered by said user interacting with said service activation form so as to provide a value for each argument of said service to be executed;

controlling a computer to ensure that every argument of said service associated with said Service Presentation Pattern that requires a value has received a value and controlling said computer to validate every value of an argument that has a value to ensure that said value has a valid data type and is within a valid range, said data type and valid ranges dictated by an Introduction Pattern, if any, associated with each said argument;

controlling a computer to automatically fill in default values for arguments on said service activation form so as to present the user with the default value, if any, of every argument of said service owning said Service Presentation Pattern;

controlling a computer to provide a mechanism to allow a user to access an object and invoke said object'"'"'s selection mechanism to select it, which objects are displayed for selection, which data is displayed from each object displayed, and how displayed objects are ordered being controlled by a Population Selection Pattern;

controlling a computer to provide a mechanism to present said user with a help message, if any, associated to every argument of a service said user wishes to invoke which has a Service Presentation Pattern;

controlling a computer to provide a mechanism to allow event-condition-action rules of Dependency Patterns which allow specification of dependency rules between arguments in services, if any dependencies exist, said mechanism allowing said Event-Condition-Action rules to be defined as a Dependency Pattern for every argument of the service owning said Service Presentation Pattern, said source code structured to control a computer to implement each said Dependency Pattern by;

monitoring for the occurrence of events relevant to every said argument, which either changes the value of said argument or activates/deactivates said argument;

controlling a computer when an argument is either changed, activated or de-activated by an event so as to check that the condition of an Event-Condition-Action (hereafter ECA) rule of said Dependency Pattern holds, and

if said condition holds, controlling said computer to execute the actions in said ECA rule of said Dependency Pattern to assign a value and/or activate and/or deactivate other arguments of the service associated to said Service Presentation Pattern;

controlling a computer to display information associated to object valuated arguments, said information dictated by a Display Set Pattern, if any, assigned as a Supplementary Information Pattern to every object valuated argument of said service associated with said Service Presentation Pattern, whenever the value of said argument changes;

controlling a computer to provide a mechanism to allow a user to cancel interaction of said user with a service activation form presented by said Service Presentation Pattern;

controlling a computer to provide a mechanism to confirm and send said message constructed automatically by said computer with validated argument values provided by said user via interaction with said service activation form, sending of said message to an object server pointed to my said service activation form causing said service owning said Service Presentation Pattern to execute.

26. The process of claim 1 wherein the translating steps in step D further comprise retrieving information from said Formal Language Specification, said retrieved information being stored in said code generation structures so as to create code generation structures which are structured such that execution of code generation methods of said code generation structures generates computer readable source code which is structured to control a computer to allow a logged on user to execute one or more services of an instance of a class said logged on user is allowed to access and/or navigate to displays displaying information pertaining to other objects related with said instance of said class, said source code generated by execution of said code generation methods of said code generation structures being structured to control a computer to perform the following steps:

display an Application Main Form containing a menu of services of objects or instances of said classes to which a user who has logged onto said application has privileges to access and services of which said user has privileges to execute, and, for each class the user who has logged on can access, generating and displaying a Query/Selection Form which allows said logged on user to query data instances of said class, search instances that fulfill a given filter condition, select objects of a class, and, for each selected object, observe instances related to said selected object and know which services for a given object said user has privileges to launch, and wherein, more specifically, said Query/Selection form having a visual component to show objects of a class which satisfy filter condition(s) set by said user with the attributes of said objects which are displayed determined by a Display Set user interface pattern selected and articulated by said designer, said Query/Selection form for each said class said user who logged in can access also having graphic items representing filters which have fields a user can fill in to supply filter criteria to allow said logged on user to filter objects in said class which will be displayed in said visual component, said Query/Selection form visual component allowing said user to control said computer to select an object that satisfies filter criteria, if any, and display services which said user can launch, and launch a service of a selected object said user requests to be launched, and said Query/Selection form visual component displaying links which allow a user to navigate to other data items related to the selected object thereby causing another Query/Selection Form to be displayed, said source code structured to control said computer to receive data regarding the previous object so that only data related to the initial object is displayed;

for each service said user can launch, locate appropriate object server code in system logic code which has been automatically generated, said object server code being code which can control a computer to carry out said service, said source code also structured to control a computer to generate and display a Service Form that points to said object server code which can perform said service, said Service Form having an introduction field for each argument said user must provide to execute said service;

supply initialization default values from said Formal Language Specification and/or values supplied by context from a recently visited objects list for some or all arguments if said designer has entered default values and/or if context values can be obtained, and/or receive user supplied values for some or all arguments needed to execute said service, and, if said user has supplied values for some or all of said arguments, check the user supplied values for each argument to ensure the data type and size is correct, the value is within an acceptable range for said argument and whether or not a null value is acceptable, and display a warning to said user if an argument'"'"'s value fails any validation check;

check dependencies between arguments, and, if a dependency is found to exist, display a form requesting said user to input data to satisfy said dependency and validate said data input by said user to ensure it has a valid data type, a proper size, and is within an acceptable range and whether a null value is acceptable if null;

once all service arguments have been validated, and dependencies satisfied, send a message containing said service arguments to said object server code so as to launch said service; and

wait for results from execution of said service, and display an error message if an error has occurred, otherwise wait for further user input.

27. A translation process using a computer to automatically convert a Formal Language Specification into working source code for a user interface of an application computer program defined in said Formal Language Specification comprising the steps of:

controlling a computer to generate the following source code files which are structured to control a computer to implement the desired user interface including;

final source code files of fixed content corresponding to structures or auxiliary functions which are widely used and always produced in the same way regardless of the content of said Formal Language Specification including headers, definitions, constants;

source code files which control a computer to implement auxiliary widgets including controls and JavaBeans, said auxiliary widgets and JavaBeans which are produced depending upon the application defined in said Formal Language Specification;

for every class defined in said Formal Language Specification;

one or more source code files which control a computer to implement a query/selection form,

one or more source code files which control a computer to implement an instance selection component,

one or more source code files which control a computer to implement a specialization component if said class is specialized, and

one or more source code files which control a computer to implement a service form if said class is a service class;

one or more source code files which control a computer to implement an access form that can receive a user name and password and check the entered data for validity for purposes of identification of a user attempting to log onto said application computer program and use it;

one or more source code files which control a computer to implement a main form presenting a menu of services a user who has successfully logged on has privileges to access and invoke; and

one or more source code files which control a computer to implement a communication function to send messages to object server code for each service a logged on user can access, said communication function source code controlling a computer to supply argument default values for a service to be launched and solicit argument values from said user for said service to be launched and validate arguments values supplied by said user to be the correct data type, size and within a valid range and, if null, determine whether or not a null value is acceptable, and notify said user if an argument value fails any validation test, said communication function also structured to control a computer to send all arguments needed to execute a service said user has indicated a desire to invoke to appropriate object server code which is capable of controlling a computer to execute said service.

28. An apparatus comprising:

a general purpose computer having as part thereof a memory, a display, a keyboard and a pointing device and having a validated Formal Language Specification stored in memory, said computer programmed with;

an operating system program loaded into and controlling operation by said computer to carry out instructions of other computer programs;

a translator program cooperating with said operating system program to control operation of said computer to automatically extract requirements data from said validated Formal Language Specification and store said requirements data in code generation translation structures in memory of said computer wherein each code generation translation structure is an object in memory of said computer in the form of an instance of a class of objects which is designed to create source code of a predetermined type and can store requirements data extracted from said formal language specification which is needed to generate source code of said predetermined type and which also stores a source code template to generate source code of said predetermined type, and wherein each said code generation translation structure also has a code generation method which functions to automatically plug requirements data stored in said translation structure object into appropriate blanks of said source code template and automatically output source code of said predetermined type which has been automatically customized by requirements data automatically extracted from said validated Formal Language Specification, and wherein said translator program cooperates with said operating system to create a code generation class object in said memory of said computer which has methods to automatically keeps track of the code generation translation structures which have been created in said memory of said computer and call said code generation methods of said code generation translation structures in the proper order to generate finished source code for said application program which is executable and complete and not a prototype and with functionality to access a database and having a complete user interface.

29. A process for using a computer to automatically validate a Formal Specification encoding a Conceptual Model of an application computer program being designed by a designer, comprising the steps:

A) using a computer to automatically ensure that said Formal Specification is complete, said Formal Specification being written in formal language having a grammar comprised of rules of syntax and semantics which define how statements in said Formal Specification must be structured and what they mean, said computer executing a validation program that uses said rules of syntax and semantics to check that all required properties of elements introduced by said designer into said Conceptual Model embodied in said Formal Specification are defined and have a valid value;

B) using a computer to automatically ensure that said Formal Specification is correct by executing a validation program which uses said rules of grammar of said formal language in which said Formal Specification is expressed to ensure that statements in said Formal Specification have correct syntax and are semantically correct and not ambiguous and each formula is well-formed according to rules of syntax and semantics specific to formulas of that type;

and further comprising the step of using a computer to automatically translate said Formal Specification into final, working, bug-free source code after steps A and B and been completed and all formulas are syntactically and semantically complete and correct so as to create a validated Formal Specification that is complete and correct, said automatic translation being carried out by a computer by extracting and storing in translation structure objects in memory of said computer predetermined requirements data from said validated Formal Specification needed to fill gaps in source code templates stored in each of a plurality of different types of translation structures stored in memory of a computer, each translation structure being a class object which stores requirements data extracted from said validated Formal Specification and a source code template and having a method which plugs requirements data stored in said translation structure into appropriate blanks in said source code template so as to create source code of a particular type which is generated by instances of said class of translation structures, said source code customized with data from said validated Formal Specification, said process of automatic translation comprising;

creating not only said translation structures but also a code generation class which includes one or more methods which are executed during said translation process to maintain a list of said translation structures which have been created;

call the code generation methods of said translation structures in the proper order;

write to files the source code generated by the code generation methods of said translation structures; and

organize said files in accordance with a component-based structure for said application computer program thereby creating final, working, bug-free source code for said application computer program.

30. A process for using a computer to automatically validate a Formal Specification encoding a Conceptual Model of an application computer program being designed by a designer, comprising the steps:

A) using a computer to automatically ensure that said Formal Specification is complete, said Formal Specification being written in formal language having a grammar comprised of rules of syntax and semantics which define how statements in said Formal Specification must be structured and what they mean, said computer executing a validation program that uses said rules of syntax and semantics to check that all required properties of elements introduced by said designer into said Conceptual Model embodied in said Formal Specification are defined and have a valid value;

B) using a computer to automatically ensure that said Formal Specification is correct by executing a validation program which uses said rules of grammar of said formal language in which said Formal Specification is expressed to ensure that statements in said Formal Specification have correct syntax and are semantically correct and not ambiguous and each formula is well-formed according to rules of syntax and semantics specific to formulas of that type;

and further comprising the steps;

presenting user interface tools including diagrams and textual interactive dialogs by which a user may define elements that make up said Conceptual Model including defining mathematical and boolean formulas necessary to define aspects of the behavior of said application computer program and make changes thereto;

checking all affected formulas each time a change is made to said Conceptual Model;

and wherein some of the properties of elements in said Conceptual Model are strictly validated under rules of said validation process and some of the elements in said Conceptual Model are flexibly validated under rules of said validation process, and, if a change made by said designer to said Conceptual Model affects a strictly validated property, then said change is rejected if the property is not given a valid value, otherwise said change is accepted;

and if a change to said Conceptual Model made by said designer affects a property which is flexibly validated, then said designer is informed should any error arise, but allowed to do the modification if said designer wishes;

if there are no affected formulas, modifying the Conceptual Model as specified by said designer.

31. A process for using a computer to automatically validate a Formal Specification encoding a Conceptual Model of an application computer program being designed by a designer, comprising the steps:

A) using a computer to automatically ensure that said Formal Specification is complete, said Formal Specification being written in formal language having a grammar comprised of rules of syntax and semantics which define how statements in said Formal Specification must be structured and what they mean, said computer executing a validation program that uses said rules of syntax and semantics to check that all required properties of elements introduced by said designer into said Conceptual Model embodied in said Formal Specification are defined and have a valid value;

B) using a computer to automatically ensure that said Formal Specification is correct by executing a validation program which uses said rules of grammar of said formal language in which said Formal Specification is expressed to ensure that statements in said Formal Specification have correct syntax and are semantically correct and not ambiguous and each formula is well-formed according to rules of syntax and semantics specific to formulas of that type;

and wherein said Conceptual Model includes a Presentation Model containing elements that define the final user interface said application computer program will present to users thereof, and wherein said Presentation Model includes elements added by said designer to said Conceptual Model by selection of user interface patterns from a pattern language which are validated by using a computer to automatically use rules of syntax and semantics that apply to patterns and sub-patterns within said patterns in said pattern language to perform the following steps;

verifying that any patterns in said Presentation Model selected by said designer and articulated with additional requirements data that defines the desired user interface are acceptable user interface patterns with no essential information missing;

verifying that attributes used in filters sub-patterns specified as part of a pattern selected to be part of said Presentation Model are visible from a class owning said filters;

verifying that attributes used in order criteria sub-patterns are visible from a class owning said order criteria sub-patterns;

verifying that any formula in a filter sub-pattern has correct syntax and is semantically correct and uses only terms defined in said Conceptual Model;

verifying that any action selection pattern selected by said designer from said pattern language uses as final actions presentation patterns selected from said pattern language which have been articulated in said Conceptual Model by said designer;

verifying that any set of dependency patterns selected by said designer to be part of said Presentation Model are terminal and have confluence; and

verifying that warnings are displayed to said user if any pattern is defined in said Conceptual Model but not used in said Presentation Model or if an instance pattern is duplicated.

32. An apparatus comprising a computer programmed with an operating system and a validation program that cooperates with said operating system to control said computer to perform the following functions of a validation process to validate a Formal Specification encoding a Conceptual Model of an application computer program being designed by a designer, said validation process comprising the following steps:

A) controlling said computer to check said Formal Specification to ensure that it is complete, said Formal Specification written in a formal language which has a grammar comprised of rules of syntax and semantics and wherein said process of checking said Formal Specification to ensure it is complete comprises the process of using said computer to automatically check said Formal Specification for completeness using said rules of syntax and semantics to ensure that all required properties of elements of said Conceptual Model encoded in said Formal Specification added by said designer are defined and have been given a valid value;

B) controlling said computer to use said rules of syntax and semantics of said formal language to ensure said Formal Specification is correct in that the statements therein have correct syntax and are semantically correct and not ambiguous and to verify that each formula is well formed according to rules of syntax and semantics specific to formulas of that type;

and

wherein said validation program is also a modelling program or is part of a suite of programs which includes a modelling program, said modelling program being structured to control said computer to perform the following steps;

displaying diagrams and textual interactive dialogs with which said designer interacts to enter requirements data that defines elements in said Conceptual Model and make changes thereto;

doing a partial validation each time a change is made to said Conceptual Model where some elements in said Formal Specification have a set of properties that are strictly validated and must have a full definition and be given a valid value when entered and other elements are flexibly validated and can be left with some properties incomplete or with invalid values during the process of inputting requirements data to define said Conceptual Model;

said partial validation process controlling said computer to implement the following rules;

if the change affects a strictly validated property and the property is not given a valid value, then the change is rejected;

if the change affects a strictly validated property and the property is given a full definition and a valid value, the change is accepted;

if the change affects a property which is not strictly validated but the change renders part of said Formal Specification invalid, then marking the portion of said Formal Specification rendered invalid by the change as invalid, but allowing the change and the requirements data inputting process to continue;

upon completion of the process of inputting requirements data and receiving a request to validate said Formal Specification, re-validating every statement in said Formal Specification and every formula using said rules of syntax and semantics and the validation processes specifically designed for each different type of formula and interacting with said designer until all errors have been corrected so as to create a validated Formal Specification;

automatically translating said validated Formal Specification into final working source code by extracting and storing in translation structure objects predetermined requirements data from said validated Formal Specification needed to fill gaps in source code templates stored in each of a plurality of different types of said translation structure objects stored in memory of said computer, each translation structure object being an instance of a class of said objects which stores requirements data extracted from said validated Formal Specification and a source code template and having a method which plugs said requirements data stored in said translation structure object into appropriate blanks in said source code template so as to create source code of the particular type generated by instances of said class of translation structures, said source code having been customized by the insertion of said requirements data stored in said translation structure which was extracted from said validated Formal Specification, said function of automatically translating further comprising creating a code generation class object which includes one or more methods which are executed by said computer during said automatic translation and control said computer to maintain a list of said translation structure objects which have been created and to call the code generation methods of said translation structure objects in the proper order, write to one or more files the source code generated by the code generation methods of said translation structure objects and organize said files in accordance with a component-based structure for said application computer program thereby creating final, working, bug-free source code for said application computer program.

33. A process for automatically translation of a validated Formal Specification into working, final source code complete with a user interface and a database schema, said validated Formal Specification encoding in a formal language a Conceptual Model of an application computer program, said automatic translation process comprising:

creating translation object instances in memory of a computer each of which is designed to create source code of a different type and each of which stores a source code template which has blanks in it for requirements data that will customize said source code to the requirements of said application computer program;

using a code generation method of each said translation object instance to control a computer to extract requirements data needed from said validated Formal Specification to fill in blanks in said source code template and storing said extracted requirements data in said translation object instance;

creating a code generation object in said memory of said computer and controlling a computer with a method which is part of said code generation object to make a list of the translation object instances which have been created and to call said code generation method of each said translation object in the proper order to cause said translation object to write source code by putting said extracted requirements data stored therein in the appropriate blanks of its source code template, writing the source code so generated by said translation objects to files and organizing said files into said application computer program.

34. A process comprising the steps:

A) controlling a computer with a validation program to validate a Formal Specification written in a formal language which has rules of syntax and semantics which define a grammar, said Formal Specification expressing in said formal language the information contained in a Conceptual Model of an application computer program being designed by a designer which is to be automatically translated by a translation program executing on a computer into working, final computer source code of said application computer program having a user interface and a database schema, said validating being carried out on a computer executing said validation program to ensure that said Formal Specification is complete in that there is no missing information and all required properties of elements in said Conceptual Model embodied in said Formal Specification are defined and have a value which is valid;

B) controlling said computer using said validation program so as to use said rules of grammar of whatever formal language said Formal Specification is written in, to ensure said Formal Specification is correct in that the statements in said Formal Specification have correct syntax and are semantically correct, consistent and not ambiguous; and

C) controlling said computer using said validation program to use rules of grammar that are specific to each different type of formula in said Conceptual Model and a validation process which is specific to each different type of formula in said Conceptual Model to validate each formula expressed in the Formal Specification;

and

wherein said Conceptual Model comprises an object model, a dynamic model, a functional model and a presentation model, and

further comprising the step of using a computer to automatically translate said Formal Specification into full, working, bug-free source code of said application computer program after steps A and B and C have been completed and all elements of said Formal Specification including all said formulas have been validated to ensure they have correct syntax and are semantically complete and correct, said automatic translation process comprising;

creating translation object instances in memory of a computer each of which is designed to create source code of a different type and each of which stores a source code template which has blanks in it for requirements data which will be extracted from said Formal Specification after it has been validated and that will customize said source code to the requirements of said application computer program;

using a code generation method of each said translation object instance to control a computer to extract said requirements data needed from said validated Formal Specification to fill in said blanks in each said source code template and storing said extracted requirements data in each said translation object instance;

creating a code generation object and controlling a computer with a method which is part of said code generation object to make a list of the translation object instances which have been created and to call said code generation method of each said translation object in the proper order to cause said translation object to write source code by putting said extracted requirements data stored therein in the appropriate blanks of its source code template, and writing the source code so generated by said translation objects to files and organizing said files into said application computer program.

35. The process of claim 34 wherein said process is performed in such a way that the following further steps are performed:

presenting user interface tools in the form of diagrams and textual interactive dialogs said designer may interact with to define said Conceptual Model and make changes thereto, and controlling a computer to automatically convert each element of requirements data as it is added to said Conceptual Model into its formal counterpart in a formal language in said Formal Specification;

checking all affected formulas and portions of said Formal Specification each time a change is made to said Conceptual Model, and marking any portions of said Formal Specification rendered invalid by a change as invalid, where some elements of said Conceptual Model have properties which are strictly validated and other elements of said Conceptual Model have properties which are flexibly validated;

if a change to said Conceptual Model affects a strictly validated property, then the change is rejected if the property is not given a valid value at the time of entry, otherwise the change is accepted;

if a change to said Conceptual Model affects a property which is not strictly validated and said designer has not entered a valid value, then said designer is informed of said error should an error arise, but is allowed to do the modification if he or she wishes;

if said change does not affect any formulas or other elements of said Formal Specification, said computer is controlled to accept the change and modify said Conceptual Model as specified by said designer.

36. The process of claim 34 further comprising the step of displaying on a display of a computer diagrams and textual interactive dialogs which said designer of said Conceptual Model can interact with to use object-oriented modelling techniques to define classes of said Conceptual Model including user interfaces of said classes and enforce the restriction that only the information relevant to filling a class definition in the formal specification language in use can be introduced.

37. The process of claim 34 further comprising the step of displaying on a display of a computer diagrams and textual interactive dialogs with which a designer of said Conceptual Model can interact to use object-oriented modelling techniques to define the classes of said Conceptual Model including user interfaces, relationships between classes, global transactions, global functions and view.

38. The process of claim 34 further comprising the step of displaying on a display of a computer diagrams and textual interactive dialogs which a designer of said Conceptual Model can interact to use object-oriented modelling techniques to define classes of said Conceptual Model including their process specification, attributes, services, valuations, derivations, integrity constraints, transactions, triggers, preconditions, display sets, filters, population selection user interface patterns, said diagrams including a state transition diagram where the designer can specify the correct behaviour of objects in terms of an appropriate sequence of states in the life cycle for all objects in the class associated with said state transition diagram for said class, and an object interaction diagram for the entire Conceptual Model which provides a tool for the designer to enter data defining allowed interobject communication such as triggers which are object services which are automatically activated when a condition specified by said designer is satisfied, and global transactions which are services involving the services of different objects and/or other global transactions, the composition of said global transactions being specified by a formula entered by said designer, and wherein said textual interactive dialogs allow said user to select and articulate patterns from a pattern language to define in said Conceptual Model and said Formal Specification generated therefrom a full user interface for said application computer program being designed, and wherein said textual interactive dialogs allow said designer to define formulas for said process specification, valuations, derivations, transaction and integrity constraints, and wherein a valuation is a mathematical or Boolean formula that specifies how an event specified by said designer will affect the value of an attribute specified by said designer of a class specified by said designer, where an event is the occurrence of a single service and not a transaction.

39. The process of claim 34 further comprising the step of displaying on a display of a computer diagrams and textual interactive dialogs which said a designer of said Conceptual Model can interact with to use object-oriented modelling techniques to define the classes of said Conceptual Model in an object model and to define a functional model, dynamic model and presentation model, all of said models being automatically converted by said computer to said Formal Specification written in the OASIS formal language, said object model including requirements data entered by said designer to define each class, and wherein said diagrams and textual interactive dialogs are structured to allow said designer to enter requirements data defining or selecting and defining the following elements of said Conceptual Model:

a formula for a default value calculation of constant and variable attributes, services, event and transaction arguments, formulas that define local and global transactions, formulas to calculate specialization conditions for inheritance, derivation and valuation formulas including formulas to calculate the values of derived and variable attributes and formulas to calculate conditions, formulas to calculate static and dynamic constraints, formulas to calculate preconditions for actions carried out by events and transactions, formulas to calculate control conditions that control transitions between states in a State Transition Diagram, formulas to calculate conditions for triggers, display sets, filters, and population selection user interface patterns.

40. The process of claim 39 further comprising the step of displaying on the display of a computer diagrams and textual interactive dialogs which said designer of said Conceptual Model can interact with to use object-oriented modelling techniques to define each class of said Conceptual Model, using a state transition diagram which defines the valid states of objects in said class and valid transitions between them, each transition defined in terms of a change in the attributes of an object in said class undergoing said transition, each transition defined in terms of an action which can cause the change in state of the object, each action defined as execution of a service by an agent, and wherein each action may have a precondition defined in the form of a formula that defines the precondition that needs to be satisfied before said action will be performed and a corresponding error message which will be displayed on a display of a computer executing said application computer program if said precondition does not hold, and wherein said diagrams and textual interactive dialogs are structured to allow said designer to specify a list of interfaces, each interface comprising a list of services that a user of said computer application program can execute and a list of attributes said user can see.

41. The process of claim 39 further comprising the step of displaying on the display of a computer diagrams and textual interactive dialogs which are structured to allow said designer to specify relationships between each class in said Conceptual Model and the other classes, said relationships being of two types:

inheritance and aggregation, said textual interactive dialogs also structured to allow said designer to define the cardinalities of each aggregation relationship and whether said aggregation relationship is static or dynamic and whether the aggregation relationship is inclusive or referential and whether said aggregation relationship has an identification dependence and allowing said designer to specify a grouping clause when said aggregation relationship is multi-valued, said diagrams and textual interactive dialogs also structured to allow said designer to store the name of a parent class for any inheritance relationship, the name of the child class and whether the specialization is temporary or permanent, and, if permanent, to store a well-formed formula based upon constant attributes as a specialization condition, and, if said specialization is temporary, said diagrams and other textual interactive dialogs are structured to allow said designer to store either a condition or a list of events that activate or deactivate the child role.

42. The process of claim 34 further comprising the step of displaying on the display of a computer diagrams and textual interactive dialogs which said designer of said Conceptual Model interacts with to use object-oriented modelling techniques to define the classes of said Conceptual Model, where said diagrams and textual interactive dialogs are structured to allow specification of services as events or transactions, where events are a single service and where transactions are compositions of multiple services each of which may be an event or a transaction, each said transaction having a formula which defines the composition of services which make up said transaction, and wherein said diagrams and textual interactive dialogs are structured to allow a designer to specify a list of arguments for each service where each argument may be given the following characteristics:

name, data type, whether nulls are allowed as a valid value, whether the argument represents a set of objects, a default value, an alias and a selection of a user interface which may be an introduction pattern, a population selection pattern, a defined selection pattern or dependency pattern, and wherein said textual interactive dialogs are structured to allow said designer give each attribute a definition which may include the following characteristics;

a name, a formal type which may be defined as a constant, variable or derived variable, a data type, a default value, whether the attribute is an identifier for distinguishing the objects of a class, a length, whether the attribute is required when the object is created, whether the attribute can be assigned a null value, and a field to introduce some remarks regarding why the attribute has been created, and wherein said textual interactive dialogs are structured to allow said designer to include a set of valuation formulas that define how the value of the attribute is changed by means of execution of an event by defining a condition that must be satisfied to apply the effect, each said formula also defining the event that causes the effect and each said formula supplying a mathematical or Boolean expression that defines how the named event affects the value of said attribute, said textual interactive dialogs also structured to allow said designer to select user interface patterns to be applied in the corresponding service arguments related to the attribute.

43. The process of claim 42 further comprising the step of displaying on the display of a computer diagrams and textual interactive dialogs which said designer of said Conceptual Model may interact with to use object-oriented modelling techniques to define the classes of said Conceptual Model and wherein said diagrams and textual interactive dialogs are structured to allow said designer to specify formulas for derivations and constraints for each class, where said textual interactive dialogs allow said designer, for each derivation, to specify a list of pairs, each pair comprising a condition and a formula, each said condition specifying which formula will be applied in each condition, and wherein said textual interactive dialogs allow said designer to specify each constraint as a formula plus an error message which will be displayed if the constraint is violated.

44. The process of claim 42 further comprising the step of displaying on the display of a computer diagrams and textual interactive dialogs which said designer of said Conceptual Model can interact with to use object-oriented modelling techniques to define the classes of said Conceptual Model wherein said diagrams and textual interactive dialogs are structured to allow a designer to enter formulas to specify derivations and constraints for each class, where each derivation comprises a list of pairs each pair comprised of a condition and a formula each condition specifying which formula will be applied if said condition is satisfied, and wherein each constraint is a formula which defines a constraint which all objects in said class owning said constraint must satisfy plus an error message which will be displayed on a display of a computer executing said application computer program if said constraint is violated, and wherein said textual interactive dialogs are structured to allow said designer to specify triggers by selecting a target in terms of self, class or object upon which a service will be performed, a trigger condition which defines the conditions which must be satisfied before a triggered action is performed, a triggered action which is defined in terms of a service which will be performed on said target and a list of possible agents to activate said triggered action and a list of default values to be applied as the arguments of the triggered service.

45. The process of claim 42 further comprising the step of displaying on the display of a computer diagrams and textual interactive dialogs which said a designer of said Conceptual Model can interact with to use object-oriented modelling techniques to define derivations and constraints for each class, where said designer can use said textual interactive dialogs to define each derivation by specifying a list of pairs, each pair comprising a condition and a formula, said condition specifying which formula will be applied if said condition is satisfied, and wherein said textual interactive dialogs are structured to allow said designer to specify each said constraint using a formula defining the constraint that all objects of the class owning said constraint must satisfy plus an error message which will be displayed on a display of a computer executing said application computer program if said constraint is violated, and wherein said diagrams and textual interactive dialogs are structured to allow a designer to specify triggers by defining a target upon which the triggered action will be carried out upon, said target being specified in terms of self, class or object, a trigger condition which is a condition which, if satisfied, will cause said triggered action to be performed, a triggered action which is defined in terms of a service which will be performed on said target if said trigger condition is satisfied and a list of possible agents to activate said triggered action and by defining a list of default values to be applied as arguments of said triggered service when said trigger condition is satisfied and said triggered action is performed, and wherein said diagrams and textual interactive dialogs allow a designer to define for each class user interface patterns in terms of display sets, each display set storing elements of visualization which control which attributes of said objects in said class will be displayed to a user of said application computer program, filters which are formulas and a list of auxiliary variables that are useful to define said formulas, said filters defining which objects in said class can be accessed, and population selection patterns which are related to said display sets and a filters and control which objects of said class can be observed and which attributes of each said object which passes said filter can be observed.

46. The process of claim 34 further comprising the step of displaying on the display of a computer diagrams and textual interactive dialogs which said designer of said Conceptual Model can interact with and which are structured to allow said user to use object-oriented modelling techniques to enter requirements data that defines the following elements of said Conceptual Model:

said classes;

services of each said class, said services being defined as events or transactions, where events are single services and where transactions are compositions of multiple services each of which may be an event or a transaction, said transaction having a formula which defines the composition of services;

a list of arguments for each service;

global transactions and, for each global transaction, said textual interactive dialogs are structured to allow said designer to give a name, a formula which defines the nature of the global transaction in terms of the services involved and a list of arguments, and to enter a list of global functions and, for each one, give a name, a data type of the returned value, a set of arguments and provide a comment about the function.

47. The process of claim 34 further comprising the step of displaying on the display of a computer diagrams and textual interactive dialogs which said designer of said Conceptual Model can interact with to use object-oriented modelling techniques to define the classes of said Conceptual Model, where said diagrams and textual interactive dialogs are structured to allow specification of services of each said class as events or transactions, where events are not comprised of multiple services and where transactions are compositions of multiple services each of which may be an event or a transaction, said transaction having a formula which defines the composition of services, and wherein said diagrams and textual interactive dialogs are structured to allow said designer to specify a list of arguments for each service, and to specify a view for each agent class, said view comprising the formal interface for said agent class in terms of the attributes said agent class will be able to see and services said agent class will be able to invoke.

48. A process comprising the steps:

using a computer to automatically translate a validated Formal Specification that embodies a Conceptual Model of an application computer program into a complete, working source code of said application computer program including a user interface and a database schema, comprising the sub steps;

A) controlling a computer to retrieve requirements data entered into said Conceptual Model by a designer of said application computer program regarding classes, global transactions and global functions defined in said Conceptual Model, and storing it in code generation structures in memory of said computer, each said code generation structure being an instance of a code generation class which is designed to generate source code of a predetermined type and storing a source code template which is used to generate source code of said predetermined type and which has blanks in it into which said requirements data is plugged by a code generation method of said code generation structure so as to customize said source code template to the particular requirements for said application computer program which are embodied in said requirements data entered by a designer into said Conceptual Model;

B) for each class for which requirements data was retrieved from said Conceptual Model, automatically generating working and complete computer program source code using said code generation methods of said code generation structures so as to generate complete and final source code which implements a server component, a query component, and a service type executive component, and a global interaction type executive component,

and wherein said server component for each said class is structured to receive requests for execution of services to be executed and has a method for each service present in said class, each said method for a service being source code which can control a computer to carry out said service;

and wherein said query component for each said class is structured to have methods necessary to query the population of said class, each said method being source code capable of controlling a computer to allow a user of said application computer program to query said population of said class stored in said database schema implemented in memory of a computer as part of a persistence tier;

and wherein said service type executive component for each said class is source code structured to be able to control a computer to resolve or execute services offered in a class signature of said class by implementing an interface to other components of said application computer program comprising a method for each service, each said method of said interface associated with a service functioning to receive from a server component for said service or another executive component a request to cause execution of said service by a server component instance that has a method to control a computer to execute said service, each said method for each said service implemented by said service type executive component being source code structured to control a computer in accordance with an Execution Model to carry out the following functions;

verify the existence and validity of said server component instance to carry out said service;

create a copy of the requested server component instance in memory of a computer and access a persistence layer via said query component to retrieve the values of constant and variable attributes needed to execute said service;

use a state transition diagram defined for said class in said Conceptual model to validate the state transition which would be caused by execution of the requested service based upon the present state of the requested server instance;

verify satisfaction of any preconditions to execution of the requested service;

if the state transition caused by execution of said service is valid and all preconditions are satisfied, modify the value of instance variable attributes that are acted upon by execution of said service as specified in a valuation formula, said modification of values done by performing all valuation calculations specified in said valuation formulas specified in said Conceptual Model as implemented by said service so as to change the state of said requested server instance;

validate the new state achieved by said server instance by checking the new state against all static and dynamic integrity constraints;

checking if said new state of said server instance causes any trigger conditions defined in said Conceptual Model to be satisfied, and, if so, cause any triggered actions to be carried out;

communicate with a persistence layer to store the values of any persistent attributes of said new state of said requested server instance; and

,

and wherein said global interaction executive component for each class is structured to have a method per each global interaction defined in said Conceptual Model for said class;

and wherein said process of automatically translating said Formal Specification into source code of said application computer program further comprises the following steps;

C) for each class for which requirements data was gathered from said Conceptual Model, using said computer to automatically execute said code generation method of a code generation structure storing a source code template designed to generate a T component, said T component being a source code component which is structured to control a computer to store a copy of the constant and variable attributes of an instance of said class in memory of a computer and is further structured to control a computer to calculate the value of derived attributes of said class;

D) for each class for which requirements data was gathered from said Conceptual Model, using said computer to automatically execute said code generation method of a code generation structure storing a source code template designed to generate a P component, said P component being a source code component structured to control a computer to store in memory values needed to initialize the values of constant and variable attributes of said class when creating an instance of said class or to just initialize the values of variables that constitute the class identification mechanism;

E) for each class which is a multi-valued component of an inheritance relationship and for which requirements data was gathered from said Conceptual Model, using said computer to automatically execute said code generation method of a code generation structure storing a source code template designed to generate a PL component, said PL component being a source code component structured to control a computer to implement a collection whose components are P components as well as to carry out methods needed to add and get items from said collection and get a number representing the number of items in said collection;

F) for some or all classes which are temporal or permanent, condition-based specialization, using a computer to automatically execute said code generation method of a code generation structure storing a source code template designed to generate a C component, where a C component is a source code component structured to control a computer to store in memory the values needed to initialize constant and variable attributes of the class corresponding to said C component when creating an instance of said class;

G) for classes which are temporal or permanent condition-based specialization, using a computer to automatically execute said code generation method of a code generation structure storing a source code template designed to generate a CC component, wherein a CC component is a source code component structured to control a computer to implement a collection of C components and a pair of methods per each C component to add and get items to the collection and a method to get the number of item in said collection of said C components;

H) for every class, using a computer to automatically generate a code generation method of a code generation structure having stored therein a source code template designed to generate an error component, said error component being a source code template which is structured to control a computer to store information about the success or failure of a service execution;

I) for every class for which requirements data was gathered from said Conceptual Model, using a computer to automatically execute a code generation method of a code generation structure having stored therein a source code template designed to generate an instance list component, wherein said instance list component is a source code component structured to control a computer to gather a collection whose items are executive components involved in the execution of a service and including methods to add an item to the collection, get an item and get the number of items in the collection and including a method to empty the collection and another one to look for an instance of said class by its identification function;

J) for every class for which requirements data was gathered from said Conceptual Model, using a computer to automatically execute the code generation method of a code generation structure storing a source code template designed to generate condition, disjunction and conjunction components, where said condition, disjunction and conjunction components are source code components which are structured to control a computer to support the construction of complex Boolean expressions, query said persistence layer and are structured as a conjunction of disjunctions, and wherein said condition component is a source code component which stores information about a simple Boolean condition comprising two operands and a Boolean operator, and wherein said disjunction component is a source code component which implements a collection whose items are condition components as well as methods to add and get a condition from the collection and a method to get the number of conditions in the collection, and wherein said conjunction component is a source code component which implements a collection whose items are disjunction components as well as having methods to add and get a disjunction from said collection of disjunction components and a method to get the number of disjunction in the collection;

K) for every class for which requirements data was gathered from said Conceptual Model, using a computer to automatically execute a code generation method of a code generation structure storing a source code template which is designed to generate a trigger component, where a trigger component is a source code component which is structured to control a computer to store information about a satisfied trigger condition so that the corresponding action identified in a formula defining said trigger condition can be later executed;

L) for every class for which requirements data was gathered from said Conceptual Model, using a computer to automatically execute a code generation method of a code generation structure storing a source code template designed to generate a trigger list component, where a trigger list component is a source code component which is structured to control a computer to implement a collection whose items are trigger components and includes methods to add trigger components to the collection, get any item from said collection, get the first item from the collection and get the number of items in the collection;

using a computer to automatically execute a code generation method of a code generation structure storing a source code template designed to generate a global module for grouping attributes and methods shared through the generated code;

using a computer to automatically execute a code generation method of a code generation structure storing a source code template designed to generate a global functions module that groups the source code of all global functions defined in said Conceptual Model; and

outputting the computer program source code resulting from the above recited source code generation steps.

49. A process for using a computer to automatically translate a validated Formal Specification written in a formal language as that term is used in computer science and meaning that there is an agreed upon syntax to every statement defining the proper structure of the component parts of the statement and there is an agreed upon semantic meaning for every term and that term is defined so as to have one and only one meaning, said Formal Specification defining an application computer program the source code of which will be created by said automatic translation of said Formal Specification, said automatic translation creating working and complete source code with a user interface and a database schema that is the functional equivalent of said Formal Specification, comprising the steps:

A) using a computer to automatically extract necessary requirements data from said Formal Specification and automatically generate source code implementing fixed files to embody headers, definitions, constants and auxiliary functions;

B) using a computer to automatically extract necessary requirements data from said Formal Specification and automatically generate source code implementing auxiliary widgets;

C) using a computer to automatically extract necessary requirements data from said Formal Specification and automatically generate source code structured to control a computer to carry out the following functions, for each class, generate a query/selection form, an instance selection component, a specialization component if the class is specialized from other classes and requires extra initialization, and, for each service of said class, locating the appropriate object server code and generating and displaying an activation service form which points to the appropriate object server for said service;

D) using a computer to automatically generate source code structured to control a computer to generate and display an access form to identify a user who wishes to use said application program by providing user name and password login capability;

E) using a computer to automatically extract necessary requirements data from said Formal Specification and automatically generate source code structured to control a computer to implement a main form containing a menu application block which displays, in menu form, all the services an authenticated user is allowed to access, and wherein said computer automatically generates system logic code to implement a server object which is source code structured to control a computer to receive arguments needed to execute said service and execute said service;

F) using a computer to automatically extract necessary requirements data from said Formal Specification and automatically generate source code structured to control a computer to implement communication functions to, for each service, send a message containing the necessary arguments needed to execute said service and send said message to the appropriate object server code structured to control a computer to carry out said service so as, so as to allow a logged on user to invoke services selected by said user; and

G) using a computer to automatically generate source code structured to control a computer to extract the state of all attributes of all classes defined in said Formal Specification and automatically generate a data store such as a relational database which stores the state of said attributes, and wherein step E is carried out in such a way as to automatically generate system logic source code structured to control a computer to access said data store so as to provide the ability to store changes in attributes of said classes as the values of said attributes change.

50. The process of claim 49 wherein step D is performed by controlling a computer to iterate over said Formal Specification to determine a list of agent classes and by controlling a computer to execute a code generation method of a code generation structure stored in memory of a computer which stores requirements data from said Formal Specification which is used by said code generation method to fill in blanks in a source code template so as to generate source code which is structured to control a computer to display a dialog box which provides a list of agent classes from which a user logging onto said application program can choose and displays a field where a user can enter an object ID of a valid object ID for a valid object instance belonging to a class said user selects and displays a field in which said user enters a password, and wherein step G is performed by controlling a computer to execute a code generation method of a code generation structure stored in memory of a computer which stores requirements data from said Formal Specification which is used by said code generation method to fill in blanks in a source code template so as to generate source code for said application computer program which is structured to control a computer to create said data store by creating a table in a relational database for every class defined in said Formal Specification with a field in each said table for each said constant or variable attribute of said class.

51. The process of claim 50 wherein step E is performed by controlling a computer to iterate through said Formal Specification and extract requirements data defining classes and services available to a user of said application computer program and which are to be implemented in said application computer program, and controlling a computer to execute a code generation method of a code generation structure stored in memory of a computer which stores requirements data from said Formal Specification which is used by said code generation method to automatically fill in blanks in a source code template so as to automatically generate source code which causes said main form to list said available services in an access hierarchy implemented as menu bars, HTTP pages or any other user interface display structure which allows said user of said application computer program to browse to and select a service said user executing said application computer program has privileges to perform, and wherein said source code automatically generated as part of said application computer program is also structured to control a computer executing said application computer program to, for each class, display an item labelled “

query”

or something which indicates selecting it will allow said user to access a query form to query said class, and to display an item labelled with the alias of a service for each service of said class available to the user, and, for each class which has an inheritance relationship with other classes, said automatically generated source code is structured to display an item for each subclass labelled with a subclass alias.

52. The process of claim 51 wherein step F is performed by controlling a computer to execute a code generating method of a code generation structure in memory of a computer that stores requirements data from said Formal Specification, said code generation method controlling said computer to use said requirements data stored in said code generation structure to fill in a source code template so as to generate source code of said application computer program which is structured to control a computer executing said application computer program to cause a service form to be displayed on said computer executing said application computer program, said service form associated with a service a user of said application computer program wishes to have executed by a computer executing said application computer program, said service form having a graphic part and a functional part, said graphic part including a displayed widget for each service argument that needs input from a user of said application computer program said widget for each said service argument having a field which a user of said computer application program uses to fill in a value for said service argument, and wherein said source code is also structured to control a computer executing said computer application program to display a pair of widgets which function to receive commands from said user of said application computer program to accept or cancel launch of said service, and wherein said functional part includes source code structured to control said computer executing said application computer program to implement event drivers for said widgets to receive and execute commands received from said user to accept or cancel launch of said service and to initialize properties of said widgets displayed for each service argument which requires input from said user with default values, and to control said computer executing said application computer program to validate data introduced by said user to set values for said service arguments and to control said computer executing said application computer program to build a message containing the values for service arguments needed to execute said service, said message to be sent to an object server having code structured to control said computer executing said application computer program to execute said service and send said message to said object server to invoke execution of said service.

53. The process of claim 49 wherein step G is performed by controlling a computer to execute a code generation method of a code generation structure stored in memory of a computer so as to extract requirements data from said Formal Specification needed to create a database schema and fill in blanks of a source code template stored in said code generation structure so as to automatically create source code structured to control a computer to create a persistence tier in the form of said database schema in memory of a computer which stores the values of all object attributes for all class objects or class instances, and wherein said code generation method extracts for each class defined in said Formal Specification requirements data including name, constant attributes of either the emergent or inherited type, variable attributes of either the emergent or inherited type, identification function, inherited identification function, aggregation relationships of either the emergent or inherited type and agent information, and wherein said database schema comprises any data structure which stores the values of all object attributes in a manner that allows system logic of said application computer program to retrieve said object attribute values at will, said data structure preferably being a table in a relational database in said memory for each elemental class defined in said Formal Specification, each said table having a field therein for each constant or variable attribute defined for said class in said Formal Specification, each said field being of a type determined by the type of said attribute to which said field corresponds in said Formal Specification, each said table having a primary key, said primary keys for said tables so created being fields in said tables and being determined by attributes marked in said Formal Specification for each class as being identification attributes for their respective classes, and wherein tables in said database schema representing specialized classes, in addition to having fields for emergent and inherited attributes will also have fields corresponding to attributes that constitute the primary key of a table representing an ancestor class, and wherein if a specialized class has its own identification function, these fields constitute a foreign key to a parent class table, and wherein if a class has an aggregation relationship which is multi-valued, a new table is added to represent said aggregation relationship which has a field for each attribute which constitutes a primary key of a related table, the set of all these fields representing the primary keys of related tables representing the primary key of said new table and representing fields coming from each related table'"'"'s primary key, these fields constituting foreign keys to each related table, and if the aggregation relationship is univalued, said source code is structured to control said computer to copy the fields of the primary key of the other class and these fields constitute a foreign key to the related class table, and wherein said source code which is automatically generated is structured to control a computer to create in each table corresponding to a class a field for each object to store a name of a current state of said object, and to create a field to store a password in tables corresponding to classes that are agents of any service specified in said Formal Specification so as to limit the users which may have access to each said service, and wherein step E is performed by controlling a computer to execute a code generation method of a code generation structure stored in memory of a computer so as to extract requirements data from said Formal Specification needed to fill in a source code template stored in said code generation structure so as to create system logic source code which identifies each point where an internal or external error might occur and generate error checking and handling source code structured to control a computer to notify a user of said application computer program about an error'"'"'s occurrence, said system logic code including source code structured to control a computer to provide user interfaces defined in said Formal Specification to allow clients to request services and to add, retrieve, update and delete information in said relational database.

54. An apparatus comprising:

a general purpose computer having as part thereof a memory, a display, a keyboard and a pointing device and having a validated Formal Language Specification stored in memory, said computer programmed with;

an operating system program loaded into and controlling operation by said computer to carry out instructions of other computer programs;

a translator program cooperating with said operating system program to control operation of said computer to automatically extract requirements data from said validated Formal Language Specification and store said requirements data in code generation translation structures in memory of said computer wherein each code generation translation structure is an object in memory of said computer in the form of an instance of a class of objects which is designed to create source code of a predetermined type and can store requirements data extracted from said formal language specification which is needed to generate source code of said predetermined type and which also stores a source code template to generate source code of said predetermined type, and wherein each said code generation translation structure also has a code generation method which functions to automatically plug requirements data stored in said translation structure object into appropriate blanks of said source code template and automatically output source code of said predetermined type which has been automatically customized by requirements data automatically extracted from said validated Formal Language Specification, and wherein said translator program cooperates with said operating system to create a code generation class object in said memory of said computer which has methods to automatically keep track of the code generation translation structures which have been created in said memory of said computer and call said code generation methods of said code generation translation structures in the proper order to generate finished source code for said application program which is executable and complete and not a prototype and with functionality to access a database and having a complete user interface and wherein said computer further comprises;

a modeler program controlling said computer to cooperate with said operating system to control said computer to create said validated Formal Language Specification by using said keyboard, display and pointing device to provide a graphical user interface having diagrams and textual interactive dialogs with which a designer interacts to design an application program by entering requirements data into a Conceptual Model, said modeler program structured to control said computer to automatically convert said requirements data by plugging it into appropriate parts of formal language statements defining the conceptual structures said requirements data is meant to define, said formal language statements so created comprising a Formal Language Specification which is written in a formal language and which encodes said Conceptual Model, a formal language being defined as a language having an agreed upon syntax to every statement defining the proper structure for the component parts of the statement and there is an agreed upon semantic meaning such that every term is defined and has one and only one meaning, said modeler also structured to cooperate with said operating system to control said computer to use said rules of syntax and semantics to validate said Formal Language Specification to ensure said Formal Language Specification is complete and correct prior to translation.