We present a taxonomy of the variability mechanisms offered by modeling
languages. The definition of a formal language encompasses a syntax and a
semantic domain as well as the mapping that relates them, thus language
variabilities are classified according to which of those three pillars they
address. This work furthermore proposes a framework to explicitly document and
manage the variation points and their corresponding variants of a variable
modeling language. The framework enables the systematic study of various kinds
of variabilities and their interdependencies. Moreover, it allows a methodical
customization of a language, for example, to a given application domain. The
taxonomy of variability is explicitly of interest for the UML to provide a more
precise understanding of its variation points.Comment: 15 pages, 14 figures, 1 tabl
Abstract. In this paper, we present an approach to define the semantics for object-oriented modeling languages. One important property of this semantics is to support underspecified and incomplete models. To this end, semantics is given as predicates over elements of the semantic domain. This domain is called the system model which is a general declarative characterization of object systems. The system model is very detailed since it captures various relevant structural, behavioral, and interaction aspects. This allows us to re-use the system model as a domain for various kinds of object-oriented modeling languages. As a major consequence, the integration of language semantics is straight-forward. The whole approach is supported by tools that do not constrain the semantics definition's expressiveness and flexibility while making it machinecheckable.
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