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UML with meaning: executable modeling in foundational UML and the Alf action language

Published:18 October 2014Publication History
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Abstract

To most in the software community, "modeling" is drawing pictures, something much different than "coding". While programming languages must be specified precisely enough to be executable, this has not necessarily been the case for modeling languages. Indeed, the well-known Unified Modeling Language (UML) has for years had a specification that is far from precise.

However, precise models are quite common in other engineering disciplines, and there has been a minority even in software engineering that have created models that are precise enough to be, themselves, executable. Over the last decade, the UML community has more generally come to realize the benefits of having at least a subset of UML specified with precise execution semantics. While not all models need to be executable, executable models can support early testing and analysis of the design of critical software systems, as well as supporting simulation for communities using UML for modeling beyond just software (such as SysML for systems engineering).

As a result, there has been a great deal of work in recent years toward the standardization of precise, executable semantics for UML models - the "meaning" behind the pictures: Foundational UML (fUML), the Action Language for fUML (Alf) and the recently completed Precise Semantics for UML Composite Structures. These new specifications provide the promise of widespread support for executable modeling across the many UML tools now on the market.

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      • Published in

        cover image ACM SIGAda Ada Letters
        ACM SIGAda Ada Letters  Volume 34, Issue 3
        HILT '14
        December 2014
        93 pages
        ISSN:1094-3641
        DOI:10.1145/2692956
        Issue’s Table of Contents
        • cover image ACM Conferences
          HILT '14: Proceedings of the 2014 ACM SIGAda annual conference on High integrity language technology
          October 2014
          116 pages
          ISBN:9781450332170
          DOI:10.1145/2663171

        Copyright © 2014 ACM

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        • Published: 18 October 2014

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