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MACH
Description
MACH is a product line of model manipulation tool for clone detection, model size computation, and more. It is our proof-of-concept platform for all the new features we develop in our research. At this point, there are two versions of MACH.Subsonic offers rich functionality, but only a simple Unix-like console interface with custom commands for (among others) clone detection, model size computation, and meta-class frequency distribution computation. It operates on models serialized as XMI files. Subsonic is our preferred vehicle for very quick and cheap deployment, and is implemented entirely in SWI-PROLOG.
Hypersonic, our second version of MACH is a web service with a matching browser interface. At this point, it only offers model clone detection as a service. However, this will be easy to extend since the back-end is identical to clone-detection component of Subsonic. The Web-service is implemented in Prolog, as the back end, and the front-end is created using standard web-technologies (HTML, CSS, JS), in particular Bootstrap and jQuery; the data exchange between client and server is done using JSON.
Usage
Students use MACH to explore the aspects of model quality introduced in the lectures. An example of this is the "clone wars" scenario, where each group of students uses MACH to discover cloned elements introduced by other groups.Why the name/Logo?
MACH is an acronym for "Model Analyser/Checker", but also the name of eminent Austrian scientist Ernst Mach
. His main contribution is in the philosophy of science, but he is probably best known today for the "MACH-number" indicating the speed of sound. -
MACH 0.7 Subsonic
Discontinued -
MACH 0.94 Transonic
Installation
The following procedure should be followed for installing MACH on Windows, as well as on Unix-like operating systems:1. Install the latest release of SWI-Prolog (version 6.6.2 at the time of writing this). Use a 32 bit version!
2. Copy the MACH binary file compiled for your operating system (see the Download section below) to the \bin directory of the SWI-Prolog installation. For instance, if SWI-Prolog is installed at C:\Program Files\swipl, copy the MACH binary to C:\Program Files\swipl\bin
3. Start MACH by executing the binary file. -
Download (most recent version, 0.94)
MACH is available as a single binary file compiled for different architectures and operating systems. In the current version 0.94, MACH requires SWI-Prolog 6.6.1 (32 bit) or later to be installed.Download MACH 0.94 for Windows 7
Slightly older versions of SWI-Prolog should also work (though we have only tested a few of them), but a 64 bit installation will not be compatible. If you require MACH for a different operating system, i.e., you cannot run MACH in a VM or similar, get in touch and we see what we can do.
Changes to last version
In 0.94, a number of bugs are fixed, and the syntax is improved to be more coherent. Also, the models command has been added, which makes handling several models easier. -
Live Demo
You can also try out MACH by using a live online demo of MACH 0.93
on SHARE.You will have to register with SHARE, log in, request a session, and use session id/link you receive after starting the remote VM to open a remote desktop (e.g., on Windows using mstsc.exe). Then you can play around with MACH without installing. However, the performance is not as good as a real installation, and you cannot upload your data as the VMs on SHARE have no web-access.
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Tutorials, FAQ's
The following documents are provided to students as tutorials and FAQs aimed at effectively using MACH for course-related assignments.Document name Type Description Download MACH manual page Usage instructions A little report explaining the installation, usage, and main features of MACH. 
MACH design Technical Background A journal pre-print justifying the MACH architecture and its evolution. MACH sample session Console session A sample console session in MACH, highlighting some common operations 
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MACH 5: Hypersonic
Due to its technology, Hypersonic needs no installation. Just a link.