How an unintended Side Effect of a Research Project led to Boosting the Power of UML
Ulrich Frank, Pierre Maier
TL;DR
The paper tackles fundamental UML tooling limitations, notably the separation of class and object diagrams and the absence of executable objects, and argues that multi-level modeling offers a superior foundation. It presents UML-MX/UML++ as an unintended yet fruitful by-product of LE4MM, achieved by adapting the meta-model and tooling to unify class/object modeling with runtime execution via XOCL constraints. Key contributions include a monotonic UML++ meta-model, runtime constraint evaluation, integrated class/object diagrams, and targeted teaching support units. The work demonstrates that pursuing side-effects in language engineering can yield practical advances with potential to supplant MOF-like architectures and enhance learning and adoption.
Abstract
This paper describes the design, implementation and use of a new UML modeling tool that represents a significant advance over conventional tools. Among other things, it allows the integration of class diagrams and object diagrams as well as the execution of objects. This not only enables new software architectures characterized by the integration of software with corresponding object models, but is also ideal for use in teaching, as it provides students with a particularly stimulating learning experience. A special feature of the project is that it has emerged from a long-standing international research project, which is aimed at a comprehensive multi-level architecture. The project is therefore an example of how research can lead to valuable results that arise as a side effect of other work.