The B Method Meets MDE: Review, Progress and Future.

Existing surveys about language workbenches (LWBs) ranging from 2006 to 2019 observe a poor usage of formal methods within domain-specific languages (DSLs) and call for identifying the reasons. We believe that the lack of automated formal reasoning in LWBs, and more generally in MDE, is not due to the complexity of formal methods and their mathematical background, but originates from the lack of initiatives that are dedicated to the integration of existing tools and techniques. To this aim we developed the Meeduse LWB and investigated the use of the B method to rigorously define the semantics of DSLs. The current applications of Meeduse show that the integration of DSLs together with theorem proving, animation and model-checking is viable and should be explored further. This technique is especially interesting for executable DSLs (xDSLs), which are DSLs with behavioural features. This paper is a review of our Formal MDE (FMDE) approach for xDSLs and a proposal for new avenues of investigation.