Generating an action notation environment from Montages descriptions

In this paper, we present an implementation of action notation based on a formal and modular specification of its semantics. This specification allows an automatic generation of an environment consisting of an interpreter and a debugger which allows the visualization of an action notation program execution and relates it to the given formal specification. The semantic description presented here is based on Montages, which is a semi-visual formalism for the specification of the syntax and semantics of programming languages. The tool support for Montages, called Gem-Mex, is used to execute the action notation specification and thereby generate an environment for executing action notation programs. Moreover, the specification maintains and refines the structuring of actions in terms of facets and thus ensures that the modularity present in action notation is retained in its semantic description.