smlang: A no_std State Machine Language DSL in Rust

A state machine language DSL based on the syntax of Boost-SML.

Aim

The aim of this DSL is to facilitate the use of state machines, as they quite fast can become overly complicated to write and get an overview of.

Transition DSL

The DSL is defined as follows:

statemachine!{
    transitions: {
        *SrcState1 + Event1 [ guard1 ] / action1 = DstState2, // * denotes starting state
        SrcState2 + Event2 [ guard2 ] / action2 = DstState1,
    }
    // ...
}

Where guard and action are optional and can be left out. A guard is a function which returns true if the state transition should happen, and false if the transition should not happen, while action are functions that are run during the transition which are guaranteed to finish before entering the new state.

This implies that any state machine must be written as a list of transitions.

The DSL supports wildcards and pattern matching for input states similar to rust pattern matching:

statemachine!{
    transitions: {
        *State1 | State3 + ToState2 = State2,
        State1 | State2 + ToState3 = State3,
        _ + ToState4 = State4,
        State4 + ToState1 = State1,
    }
    // ...
}

Which is equivalent to:

statemachine!{
    transitions: {
        *State1 + ToState2 = State2,
        State3 + ToState2 = State2,

        State1 + ToState3 = State3,
        State2 + ToState3 = State3,

        State1 + ToState4 = State4,
        State2 + ToState4 = State4,
        State3 + ToState4 = State4,
        State4 + ToState4 = State4,

        State4 + ToState1 = State1,
    }
    // ...
}

See example examples/input_state_pattern_match.rs for a usage example.

State machine context

The state machine needs a context to be defined. The StateMachineContext is generated from the statemachine! proc-macro and is what implements guards and actions, and data that is available in all states within the state machine and persists between state transitions:

statemachine!{
    transitions: {
        State1 + Event1 = State2,
    }
    // ...
}

pub struct Context;

impl StateMachineContext for Context {}

fn main() {
    let mut sm = StateMachine::new(Context);

    // ...
}

See example examples/context.rs for a usage example.

State data

Any state may have some data associated with it:

pub struct MyStateData(pub u32);

statemachine!{
    transitions: {
        State1(MyStateData) + Event1 = State2,
    }
    // ...
}

See example examples/state_with_data.rs for a usage example.

If the starting state contains data, this data must be provided after the context when creating a new machine.

pub struct MyStateData(pub u32);

statemachine!{
    transitions: {
        State2 + Event2 / action = State1(MyStateData),
        *State1(MyStateData) + Event1 = State2,
        // ...
    }
    // ...
}

// ...

let mut sm = StateMachine::new(Context, MyStateData(42));

State data may also have associated lifetimes which the statemachine! macro will pick up and add the States enum and StateMachine structure. This means the following will also work:

pub struct MyStateData<'a>(&'a u32);

statemachine! {
    transitions: {
        *State1 + Event1 / action = State2,
        State2(MyStateData<'a>) + Event2 = State1,
        // ...
    }
    // ...
}

See example examples/state_with_reference_data.rs for a usage example.

Event data

Data may be passed along with an event into the guard and action:

pub struct MyEventData(pub u32);

statemachine!{
    transitions: {
        State1 + Event1(MyEventData) [guard] = State2,
    }
    // ...
}

Event data may also have associated lifetimes which the statemachine! macro will pick up and add the Events enum. This means the following will also work:

pub struct MyEventData<'a>(pub &'a u32);

statemachine!{
    transitions: {
        State1 + Event1(MyEventData<'a>) [guard1] = State2,
        State1 + Event2(&'a [u8]) [guard2] = State3,
    }
    // ...
}

See example examples/event_with_data.rs for a usage example.

Guard and Action syntax

See example examples/guard_action_syntax.rs for a usage-example.

State Machine Examples

Here are some examples of state machines converted from UML to the State Machine Language DSL. Runnable versions of each example is available in the examples folder. The .pngs are generated with the graphviz feature.

Linear state machine

DSL implementation:

statemachine!{
    transitions: {
        *State1 + Event1 = State2,
        State2 + Event2 = State3,
    }
}

This example is available in ex1.rs.

Looping state machine

DSL implementation:

statemachine!{
    transitions: {
        *State1 + Event1 = State2,
        State2 + Event2 = State3,
        State3 + Event3 = State2,
    }
}

This example is available in ex2.rs.

Using guards and actions

DSL implementation:

statemachine!{
    transitions: {
        *State1 + Event1 [guard] / action = State2,
    }
}

This example is available in ex3.rs.

Contributors

List of contributors in alphabetical order:

• Emil Fresk (@korken89)
• Mathias Koch (@MathiasKoch)
• Donny Zimmanck (@dzimmanck)

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License

Licensed under either of

• Apache License, Version 2.0 (LICENSE-APACHE or http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0)

• MIT license (LICENSE-MIT or http://opensource.org/licenses/MIT)

at your option.