The
representational form of most modeling languages is graphical combined with
text. Modeling languages can also be based on other representations, like matrices,
tables, and forms, or be purely textual.
The choice of notation for a DSM language closely follows the actual
presentation of the domain concepts: a valve in a paper mill should look like a valve
in the modeling language too, and a control knob for a car infotainment system
should have a similar illustration in the modeling language. Ideally, each concept of
the modeling language has exactly one notational representation, such as a symbol.
This principle minimizes the overload of notational constructs and guarantees that
all concepts can be represented in the language. Accordingly, the completeness of
representations Q1 (Batani et al., 1992; Venable, 1993) or representational ?¬?delity
(Weber and Zhang, 1996), that is, availability of only one notational construct for
each concept, is a well-known criterion for dealing with interpretations between
modeling concepts and notations.
4.2.2 Model of Computation
A modeling language is usually based on some kind of computational model, such
as a state machine, data ?¬‚ow, or data structure. The choice of this model, or a
combination of many, depends on the modeling target. Most of us make this choice
implicitly without further thinking: some systems call for capturing dynamics and
thus we apply for example state machines, whereas other systems may be better
speci?¬?ed by focusing on their static structures using feature diagrams or component
diagrams.
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