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Blended Graphical and Textual Modelling of UML-RT State-Machines: An Industrial Experience

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Software Architecture (ECSA 2021)

Abstract

The ever increasing complexity of modern software systems requires engineers to constantly raise the level of abstraction at which they operate to suppress the excessive complex details of real systems and develop efficient architectures. Model Driven Engineering has emerged as a paradigm that enables not only abstraction but also automation. UML, an industry de-facto standard for modelling software systems, has established itself as a diagram-based modelling language. However, focusing on only one specific notation limits human communication and the pool of available engineering tools. The results of our prior experiments support this claim and promote the seamless use of multiple notations to develop and manipulate models. In this paper we detail our efforts on the provision of a fully blended (i.e., graphical and textual) modelling environment for UML-RT state-machines in an industrial context. We report on the definition of a textual syntax and advanced textual editing for UML-RT state-machines as well as the provision of synchronization mechanisms between graphical and textual editors.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    https://www.hcltechsw.com/rtist.

  2. 2.

    https://www.eclipse.org/papyrus-rt/.

  3. 3.

    http://www-03.ibm.com/software/products/en/ratsadesigner/.

  4. 4.

    https://sparxsystems.com/.

  5. 5.

    Please note that by graphical/textual model, we intend a model rendered using a graphical/textual notation.

  6. 6.

    https://www.eclipse.org/Xtext/.

  7. 7.

    https://wiki.eclipse.org/QVTo.

  8. 8.

    https://www.eclipse.org/modeling/emf/.

  9. 9.

    https://rtist.hcldoc.com/help/topic/com.ibm.xtools.rsarte.webdoc/pdf/RTist%20Concepts.pdf.

  10. 10.

    https://www.omg.org/spec/QVT/1.3/About-QVT/.

  11. 11.

    http://plantuml.com/guide.

  12. 12.

    https://abstratt.github.io/textuml/.

  13. 13.

    https://www.eclipse.org/etrice/.

  14. 14.

    https://www.eclipse.org/papyrus-rt/.

  15. 15.

    https://blended-modeling.github.io/.

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Acknowledgments

This work was supported by Vinnova through the ITEA3 BUMBLE project (rn. 18006). We would like to thank Ernesto Posse for his great support in technical discussions related to the UML-RT textual implementation in Papyrus-RT.

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Correspondence to Malvina Latifaj .

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Latifaj, M., Ciccozzi, F., Anwar, M.W., Mohlin, M. (2022). Blended Graphical and Textual Modelling of UML-RT State-Machines: An Industrial Experience. In: Scandurra, P., Galster, M., Mirandola, R., Weyns, D. (eds) Software Architecture. ECSA 2021. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 13365. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-15116-3_2

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-15116-3_2

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