CASE-Tool Interchange of Design Transformations

Abstract

The great variety of CASE tools available on the market implies a need for data interchange. One approach to satisfying this need is the export and import of models. For this to be vendor independent requires standardized common interchange formats, either in the form of meta-models or a common transfer format. CASE tools use some type of explicit or implicit design transformations to transform different types of models, for example conceptual to logical. The transformations are important for interchange since a set of models which are consistent in one tool may be inconsistent in another tool that does not support the same set of transformations. Subsequent modification in the latter tool may lead to irresolvable inconsistencies. In this paper we define a common, model independent notation for design transformations to facilitate interchange between tools so that the meaning of different transformations can remain consistent between different CASE tools. The proposal is made in the form of a conservative extension to OCL. A run-time interpreter for the extension has been built.