Re: [regrep] Final draft recommendations for CC's and Registry -UML/UMM Profile for CCTS

[Duane Nickull <dnickull@adobe.com>]

Evan:

Thank you. Anders has successfully enlightened me to the fact that UML 
does contain more than just the 2 dimensional syntax, albeit via 
references. I am currently reading the docs to try and determine if it 
is sufficient for some of the requirements people have laid out for me. 
UN/CEFACT also will have to determine if the interchange format is also 
acceptable to endorse as the one and only standard to do this with. No 
judgment from me on that.

While I find it not untruthful to say that "UML has a model interchange 
format", I find it a bit misleading in the fact that a more accurate 
statement might be "UML formally specifies use of XMI for model 
interchange". The use of XMI may have some implications - some of these 
are noted in the specification itself (see below).

Nevertheless, the main thrust of this conversation is around the fact 
that when most people say "UML", they do refer to the 2 dimensional 
syntax. For instance, UBL provides their UML diagrams in *.gif format.
http://www.oasis-open.org/committees/ubl/lcsc/0p70/uml/reusable/UBL_Library_0p70_InvoiceLine.gif

Hardly useful for an application that wants to parse them. A human can 
read and understand them quite well however.

The last comment you made:
ewallace@cme.nist.gov wrote:

>The Diagram Interchange specification is utterly 
>irrelevant to encoding the elements of a UML model, it's purpose is to
>support exchange of presentation information between graphical tools.
>
is actually a large part of this problem we are trying to solve. We need 
an interchange format that allows consistent interpretation of the 
models and is supported by the graphic tools vendors so there is 
consistent rendering of the models.

Please forgive my ignorance to all things UML - I am still learning more 
about UML every day. It is impressive and large specification - makes me 
wonder if any one person has read the whole thing ;-)

Duane Nickull

References: (From version 1.5 not 2.0)

Section 1.5.1.2 “The UML defines a semantic metamodel, not a tool

interface, storage, or run-time model, although these should be fairly 
close to one

another. The UML documents do include some tips to tool vendors on 
implementation choices,

but do not address everything needed. For example, they don’t address 
topics like

diagram coloring, user navigation, animation, storage/implementation 
models, or other

features.”

Section 5.1 “UML model interchange is based on the Metaobject Facility 
(MOF) 1.3 Specification.

The UML Semantics abstract syntax is mapped to a set of MOF packages 
called the

UML Interchange Metamodel. The packages are available as an XML document

called UML_1.4_Interchange_Metamodel.xml (OMG document ad/01-02-15) whose

document type is based on the MOF 1.3 Model and the XML Metadata Interchange

(XMI) 1.1 Specification.

.”

Section 5.2 “UML models can be exchanged between software tools as 
streams or files with a

standard XML format. An XML document type file named UML_1.4_XMI_1.1.dtd

(OMG document ad/01-02-16) is generated from the UML Interchange Metamodel

following the rules of the XML Metadata Interchange (XMI) 1.1 
Specification. The

single document type supports all packages of the UML Interchange 
Metamodel, but a

tool that exchanges models using XML might support some packages and not 
others.”

5.3 “CORBA interfaces can be used for creating, accessing, and 
manipulating UML models.

The MOF Specification's Reflective module provides generic interfaces 
for accessing

all objects of a model. Tailored interfaces extend the generic 
interfaces. One tailored

IDL module is generated from each UML Interchange Metamodel package 
following

rules defined in the MOF Specification. The tailored interfaces support 
fine-grained

creation, access, and modification of model elements with type safety in 
terms of the

UML Interchange Metamodel. Support of tailored interfaces is optional. A 
facility

might support some packages and not others.”


-- 
***********
Senior Standards Strategist - Adobe Systems, Inc. - http://www.adobe.com
Vice Chair - UN/CEFACT Bureau Plenary - http://www.unece.org/cefact/
Chair - OASIS eb SOA TC - http://www.oasis-open.org/committees/tc_home.php?wg_abbrev=ebsoa
***********