Real-world scale

The examples so far use fictional models (HelloWorld, Roastery) to teach the language. Real standards models are far larger and more complex. This page shows the structural scale of models built with Primmel, without displaying the standards’ copyrighted content.

Primmel is used to model real ISO, BSI, and OIML standards in a private repository. Here is what those models look like at a glance.

Model sizes

BS 44003 is the densest: 560 provisions across 56 canvases. ISO 27001 has the deepest process tree: 262 processes on 77 canvases.

What a large model looks like

A typical large standard model has this overall shape (IDs anonymized):

root StandardRoot

metadata {
  title "…"
  schema "Primmel 0.1"
  namespace "StandardNS"
}

role Management { name "Management" }
role Operator   { name "Operator" }
role Auditor    { name "Auditor" }

process Process_001 { name "…" actor Management }
process Process_002 { name "…" actor Operator }
// … 100+ more …

provision Prov_001 {
  modality SHALL
  condition "…"
  reference { StandardDoc#Clause-1.2.3 }
}
// … 300+ more …

canvas Page_001 {
  elements { … }
  process_flow { … }
}
// … 50+ more canvases, one per diagram page

Structural patterns at scale

Multi-canvas layout

Large standards have dozens of canvases. Each canvas is a “page” of the flow diagram, linked by edges that cross page boundaries:

canvas Overview {
  elements {
    Start    { x 0 y 0 }
    ProcessA { x 0 y 100 }
    ProcessB { x 200 y 100 }
    End      { x 100 y 200 }
  }
  process_flow {
    E1 { from Start to ProcessA }
    E2 { from Start to ProcessB }
    E3 { from ProcessA to End }
    E4 { from ProcessB to End }
  }
}

canvas ProcessA_Detail {
  // Expanded view of ProcessA's subprocesses
}

Nested processes

Complex processes decompose into children:

process Manufacturing {
  name "Manufacture product"

  process Assembly {
    name "Assemble components"
  }

  process QualityControl {
    name "Inspect quality"
  }
}

The children field records the hierarchy. Auditors can navigate from a high-level process down to its detailed steps.

Compliance density

A model with 300+ provisions is navigated by modality:

provision P_001 {
  modality SHALL
  condition "measurement >= threshold"
}
provision P_002 {
  modality SHOULD
  condition "…"
}
provision P_003 {
  modality MAY
  condition "…"
}

The Primmel editor and viewer provide compliance dashboards that filter by SHALL / SHOULD / MAY, group by process, and link each provision to its reference clause.

Accessing the full models

The real-world models live in a private repository because standards text is copyrighted by the respective standards bodies (ISO, BSI). The models — the Primmel representations — may be Ribose’s intellectual property.

To request access to the full models for evaluation or implementation, contact the Primmel project.

What you can do now

Without the real models, you can still:

1. Try the playground at /playground — edit a live model and see the visual diagram
2. Study the examples — the fictional models in this section demonstrate every language feature
3. Build your own — use the patterns shown here to model your own processes and provisions