Ehdotuksen tiedot

The Kernel Modeling Language (KerML) is an application-independent modeling language with a well-grounded formal semantics for modeling existing or planned systems. The language includes general syntactic constructs for structuring models, such as relationships, annotations and namespaces; core semantic constructs that have semantics based on classification; and additional constructs for commonly needed modeling capabilities, such as associations and behaviors.

 

System models are expressed in KerML using a textual concrete syntax. This can be parsed to an abstract syntax representation, which is then given a semantic interpretation for the system being modeled. The semantics for the KerML core constructs is grounded in formal mathematical logic, providing a consistent basis for mathematical reasoning about KerML models. However, beyond this, the semantics of KerML constructs are specified by the relationship of user model elements to the KerML Semantic Library.

 

The Semantic Library models, also expressed in KerML, provide an ontological model of the meaning of KerML models. Indeed, all KerML models can be semantically expressed using solely core modeling constructs referencing the appropriate semantic concepts defined in the Semantic Library. KerML semantic constructs beyond the core are essentially just syntactic conveniences for reusing specific library concepts: structures for modeling objects, behaviors for modeling performances, associations for modeling links, etc.

 

Indeed, the full KerML language can be considered to be simply a syntactic extension of the core, which is semantically extended using library models. By intent, this approach can also be used to build on KerML to create more specific modeling languages. Application specific modeling languages can be built on KerML by extending the KerML abstract syntax, specializing its semantics, with concrete syntaxes similar to or entirely different from KerML's.

 

To support this, the KerML Semantic Library also includes additional library models beyond those directly providing semantics for KerML syntactic constructs, capturing typical semantic patterns (such as asynchronous transfers and state-based behavior) that can be reused by languages built on KerML. Specialized modeling languages can provide additional syntax for these libraries, tailored to their applications, with semantics based largely or entirely on the KerML libraries.

 

In this way, KerML can provide the kernel for a family of syntactically diverse but semantically integrated modeling languages.