Introductory Tutorial on Foundations and Applications of Graph Transformation

Abstract

This tutorial is intended as a general introduction to graph transformation for scientists who are not familiar with the field. The tutorial will start with an informal introduction to the basic concepts like graph, rule, transformation, etc., discussing semantic choices like which notion of graph to use; how to put labels, attributes, or types; or what to do with dangling links during rewriting, etc., and mentioning different ways to formalise the basic concepts.

In the second part, the tutorial will give a survey of typical applications of graph transformation in software engineering, e.g., as a specification language and semantic model for concurrent and distributed systems, as a meta language for defining the syntax, semantics, and manipulation of diagrams, etc.

Finally, the tutorial will go into some details about the algebraic approach to graph transformation, its formal foundations and relevant theory and tools. This shall enable the participants to better appreciate the conference and its satellite events.