UML ACTION SEMANTICS FOR MODEL TRANSFORMATION SYSTEMS

Abstract

The Action Semantics for UML provides a standard and platform independent way to describe the behavior of methods and executable actions in object-oriented system design prior to implementation allowing the development of highly automated and optimized code generators for UML CASE tools. Model transformation systems provide visual but formal background to specify arbitrary transformations in the Model Driven Architecture (the leading trend in software engineering). In the current paper, we describe a general encoding of model transformation systems as executable Action Semantics expressions to provide a standard way for automatically generating the implementation of formal (and provenly correct) transformations by off-the-shelf MDA tools. In addition, we point out a weakness in the Action Semantics standard that must be improved to achieve a stand-alone and functionally complete action specification language.