School of Computing

A Relational Approach to Defining Transformations in a Metamodel

David H. Akehurst and Stuart J. H. Kent

In Jean-Marc Jezequel and Heinrich Hussmann, editors, <<UML>> 2002 - The Unified Modeling Language: Model Engineeing, Concepts, and Tools, volume 2460 of Lecture notes in computer science, pages 182-196. Springer, October 2002.

Abstract

Metamodelling is becoming a standard way of defining languages such as the UML. A language definition distinguishes between concrete syntax, abstract syntax and semantics domain. It is possible to define all three using a metamodelling approach, but it is less clear how to define the transformations between them. This paper proposes an approach which uses metamodelling patterns that capture the essence of mathematical relations. It shows how these patterns can be used to define both the relationship between concrete syntax and abstract syntax, and between abstract syntax and semantics domain, for a fragment of UML. A goal of the approach is to provide a complete specification of a language from which intelligent tools can be generated. The extent to which the approach meets this goal is discussed in the paper.



Bibtex Record

@inproceedings{1559,
author = {David H. Akehurst and Stuart J. H. Kent},
title = {{A Relational Approach to Defining Transformations in a Metamodel}},
month = {October},
year = {2002},
pages = {182-196},
keywords = {determinacy analysis, Craig interpolants},
note = {},
doi = {},
url = {http://www.cs.kent.ac.uk/pubs/2002/1559},
    publication_type = {inproceedings},
    submission_id = {1244_1037697944},
    ISBN = {3-540-44254-5},
    booktitle = {<> 2002 - The Unified Modeling Language: Model Engineeing, Concepts, and Tools},
    editor = {Jean-Marc Jezequel and Heinrich Hussmann},
    volume = {2460},
    series = {Lecture notes in computer science},
    publisher = {Springer},
    ISSN = {0302-9743},
}

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