Abstract
This paper describes a new kind of logic-based approach to domain knowledge modelling in information systems engineering. The approach is centred around εDDL DP , a formal but user-friendly language used for an integrated description of structural and behavioural concepts at the domain level. These concepts, called information meta-concepts, represent the external outlook of the essential components of real-world application domains under a minimalist viewpoint. εDDL DP is an analyst-oriented, epistemological concept language which allows automatic reasoning about a domain knowledge base composed of information meta-concepts. The εDDL DP language is founded on an extensible framework explicitly conceived for the development of a new generation of computer-based analysis tools endowed with automatic deductive capabilities. The syntax of the language as well as some of the automatic reasoning capabilities bound to εDDL DP descriptions are shown by means of a real-world example. The main features of the εDDL DP -centred approach are compared with the corresponding features of two popular structural and behavioural modelling approaches.
Chapter PDF
References
Barstow, D. (1993). Should we specify Systems or Domains? In Proc. of the 1st IEEE Int. Sym. on Requirements Engineering (RE-93), page 79.
Borgida, A., Greenspan, S., and Mylopoulos, J. (1985). Knowledge Representation as the basis for Requirements Specification. IEEE Computer, pages 82–91.
Borgida, A. and Jarke, M. (1992). Special Issue on Knowledge Representation and Reasoning in Software Engineering. IEEE Transactions on Software Engineering, 18 (6).
Borgida, A. and Patel-Schneider, P. F. (1994). A semantics and complete algorithm for subsumption in the CLASSIC description logic. Journal of Artificial Intelligence Research, 1: 277–308.
Brachman, R. J. et al. (1991). Living with CLASSIC: when and how to use a KL-ONE-like language. In Sowa, J. F., editor, Principles of Semantic Networks, pages 401–456. Morgan Kaufmann.
Cardelli, L. (1984). A Semantics of Multiple Inheritance. In Kahn, G. et al., editors, Semantics of Data Types, volume 173 of Lecture Notes in Computer Science, pages 52–67.
Chen, P. P. (1976). The Entity-Relationship model: Toward a unified view of data. ACM Transactions on Database Systems, 1 (1): 9–36.
Coad, P. and Yourdon, E. (1991). Object Oriented Analysis. Prentice-Hall, 2nd edition.
Compatangelo, E. and Rumolo, G. Formal Domain Knowledge Modelling with Epistemological Concept Languages. Submitted for publication.
Greenspan, S., Mylopoulos, J., and Borgida, A. (1994). On Formal requirements Modelling Languages: RML Revisited. In Proc. of the 16th Int. Conf. on Software Engineering (ICSE-16).
Grosz, G. (1992). Building Information Systems Using Generic Structures. In International Computer Software and Applications Conference (ICSAC-92), Chicago (USA).
Hofmann, H. F. (1993). Requirements Engineering: A Survey of Methods and Tools. Technical Report 93.05, Institut für Informatik der Universität Zürich (IFI).
Hsia, P., Davis, A., and Kung, D. (1993). Status Report: Requirements Engineering. IEEE Software, pages 75–79.
Jackson, M. A. and Zave, P. (1993). Domain Descriptions. In Proc. of the 1st IEEE Int. Sym. on Requirements Engineering (RE-93), pages 56–64. IEEE Computer Society Press.
[Jarke et al., 1993] Jarke, M. et al. (1993). Requirements Engineering: An Integrated View of Representation, Process and Domain. In 4th Eurpoean Conference on Software Engineering.
Kangassalo, H. (1992/93). COMIC: A system and methodology for conceptual modelling and information construction. Data and Knowledge Engineering, 9: 287–319.
Kramer, J. (1993). “Generalisations are False”? In Proc. of the 1st IEEE Int. Sym. on Requirements Engineering (RE-93), page 79. IEEE Computer Society Press.
Loucopolos, P. et al. (1991). Design and Execution of Event/Action Database Applications. In 2nd Int. Conf. on Deductive Approaches to Information Systems and Databases.
Maiden, N. and Tyndale, D. (1994). Reuse of Domain Abstractions during Requirements Engineering. Technical Report 94–5, ESPRIT Basic Research Project 6353, Novel Approaches to Theories Underlying Requirements Engineering (NATURE).
Mylopoulos, J. et al. (1990). Telos: Representing Knowledge About Information Systems. ACM Transactions on Information Systems, 8 (4): 325–362.
Pohl, K. (1994). The Three Dimensions of Requirements Engineering: A Framework and its Applications. Information Systems, 19 (3): 243–258.
Rumbaugh, J. and Blama, M. (1991). Object-Oriented Modelling and Design. Prentice-Hall.
Woods, W. A. and Schmolze, J. G. (1992). The KL-ONE family. Computers and Mathematics with Applications, 23 (2–9): 1–50.
Yourdon, E. (1989). Modern Structured Analysis. Prentice-Hall.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 1996 IFIP International Federation for Information Processing
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Compatangelo, E., Rumolo, G. (1996). Modelling domain knowledge with EDDL DP . In: Sutcliffe, A., Benyon, D., van Assche, F. (eds) Domain Knowledge for Interactive System Design. IS&O 1996. IFIP Advances in Information and Communication Technology. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-0-387-35059-2_10
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-0-387-35059-2_10
Publisher Name: Springer, Boston, MA
Print ISBN: 978-1-5041-2891-9
Online ISBN: 978-0-387-35059-2
eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive