How to Ground Meta-Circular OCL Descriptions -- a Set-Theoretic Approach --


 Author: Thomas Baar

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  Meta-modeling is a standard technique to describe the abstract
  syntax of the Unified Modeling Language UML including the Object
  Constraint Language OCL. In order to overcome inherent deficiencies
  of meta-circular UML descriptions the language MML based on an
  external formal semantics was proposed as a core of UML.
  
  Similarly, this paper proposes CINV as an alternative core of UML.
  CINV diagrams are defined by a set theoretic definition of syntax
  and semantics. CINV diagrams are sufficiently expressive to define
  a syntax which coincides with their own syntax. As a novel feature
  of our approach, the coincidence can be proven mathematically.