Integrating UML and ALF: An Approach to Overcome the Code Generation Dilemma in Model-Driven Software Engineering
Published in Model-Driven Engineering and Software Development - 7th International Conference, MODELSWARD 2019, Prague, Czech Republic, February 20-22, 2019, Revised Selected Papers, 2019
DOI: 10.1007/978-3-030-37873-8_1
Abstract
The state of the art in model-driven software engineering is a combination of structural modeling and conventional programming to supply the operational behavior of the system. This fact leads to the so-called code generation dilemma when model and hand-written code evolve independently during the software development process. In this paper we present an approach of integrating two OMG standards to overcome this problem: A tight integration of UML used for structural modeling and the Action Language for Foundational UML (ALF) for behavioral modeling using a textual surface notation leads to a full-blown model-driven process which allows for the generation of fully executable source code. Supplying hand-written code fragments in the target language is no longer necessary.