For example, if
the possible set of icons is ?¬?xed, the Icon concept can have a list of legal values
from which to choose. If there are different kinds of icons they could be
speci?¬?ed as subtypes having their own characterizing properties and possibly
inheriting common ones from the main Icon concept.
In DSM, a language identi?¬?es all the relevant concepts, whereas a general-purpose
language leaves most, if not all, for the modeler to decide. The latter choice then
240 DSM LANGUAGE DEFINITION
makes model checking, reuse, integration with other models, and code generation
dif?¬?cult. Consider, for example, integrating two models.You may use string matching
by naming models or model elements similarly or have special properties or other
naming concepts to indicate the integration. The other alternative is to recognize
integration already at the language level: the modeling concepts are the same or share
the same details. Using two UML diagrams as an example: Class diagrams and state
transition diagrams clearly share some information, such as operations in a class and
events of a state transition. This integration can be left to the modeller, or the modeling
languages (metamodels) can be integrated. In the latter case, the name of the operation
in the class diagram is the same modeling concept as the event name in a state
machine.
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