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Current software development tools let developers model a software system and generate program code from the models to run the system. However, generating code and installing a non-trivial system induces a time delay between changing the model and executing it that makes rapid model prototyping awkward if not impossible. This paper presents the architecture of a virtual machine for UML that interprets UML models without any intermediate code-generation step. The paper shows how to embed UML in a metalevel architecture so that a key property of model-based systems, the causal connection between models and model instances, is guaranteed. With this architecture, changes to a model have immediate effects on its execution, providing users with rapid feedback about the model's structure and behavior. This approach supports model innovation better than today's code-generation approaches.
Dirk Riehle, Steven Fraleigh, Dirk Bucka-Lassen, and Nosa Omorogbe. "The Architecture of a UML Virtual Machine." In Proceedings of the 2001 Conference on Object-Oriented Programming Systems, Languages, and Applications (OOPSLA '01). ACM Press, 2001. Page 327-341.
The paper is available as a PDF file.
The actual OOPSLA presentation is available as an annotated PDF file as well.
If you are interested in this topic, please send me email and consider joining the yahoo-groups uml-virtual-machines discussion forum.
Copyright (©) 2001 ACM. All rights reserved.
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