RE: [mdt-sbvr.dev] SBVR-uml designation.gif

["Stan Hendryx" <stan@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Dave Carlson wrote:
> This would imply that Expression really must be a first class 
> independent object in the model, and a Designation is an association 
> between a concept and an expression.  A Defintion is also an association 
> between an expression and a concept.

Yes! "Representation" is an objectification of "expression represents
meaning". Notice the form of the definition, "represntation: actuality that
a given expression represents a given meaning". This is the classical
pattern for the definition of an objectification (association class). This
is true of each kind of representation, including definitions. The term
"objectification" belongs to the LFSV, where it is a kind of logical
formulation. I'm using the term here as if it were a concept type in MRV,
which would be the meaning of the logical formulation. See the
"objectification" entry in LFSV for more details. Objectifications are very
powerful and commonly occurring in modeling, but are usually not recognized
as such without careful analysis. This tendency is exacerbated by the fact
that association classes are not supported in CMOF and ECORE. However, there
are distinct patterns for modeling an association class with three
associations and three classes, with restrictions on the multiplicities.
Some modeling tools that do support association classes get the
multiplicites wrong (e.g. the one that Dave and I use).

Stan

> -----Original Message-----
> From: mdt-sbvr.dev-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxx 
> [mailto:mdt-sbvr.dev-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Dave Carlson
> Sent: Wednesday, April 23, 2008 8:00 PM
> To: 'SBVR developer list'
> Subject: RE: [mdt-sbvr.dev] SBVR-uml designation.gif 
> 
> I didn't realized that's what was intended by the dashed line 
> in Figure 8.4.
> So if Representation is an association class, then its subclasses
> (Designation, Definition, FactTypeForm, etc) are also 
> association classes.
> It seems very odd to me for Definition to be an association 
> class.  I'll
> need to think about that one...
> 
> This would imply that Expression really must be a first class 
> independent
> object in the model, and a Designation is an association 
> between a concept
> and an expression.  A Defintion is also an association 
> between an expression
> and a concept.
> 
> Mark, in your prototype tool, how did you handle creation and 
> management of
> independent expression (text) objects?
> 
> Dave
> 
> > 
> > I agree with Stan's observation on April 12 that an SBVR 
> > "representation" is an association class,  I believe it 
> > doesn't show up that way in the CMOF file because CMOF 
> > doesn't support association classes.  But Figure 8.4 in the 
> > SBVR specification makes it quite clear that "representation" 
> > is an association class.
> > 
> > Since EMF doesn't support association classes, we are still 
> > left with modeling "representation" as a class in EMF.  
> > Semantically, it is quite clear that a representation owns 
> > neither the corresponding meaning nor the corresponding expression.
> 
> 
> _______________________________________________
> mdt-sbvr.dev mailing list
> mdt-sbvr.dev@xxxxxxxxxxx
> https://dev.eclipse.org/mailman/listinfo/mdt-sbvr.dev
>