KDM — Section: 9.6.1

Representation of data types and storable elements in KDM (aka "compressed data type representation") has a disadvantage: it is difficult to implement a query that lists all variables in a Code Model. KDM does not explicitly represent varibles. Instead, it represented various typeUnits with a additional kind attribute (of InstanceKind data type) that distinguishes for example, global variable, local variables, fields of a record, members of a class, formal parameters of a procedure, etc. In order to get the list of variables, one needs to iterate over all subtypes of a TypeElement (quite a few), and check the kind attribute. Suggestion: to "uncompress" the representation a little, by introducing an explicit StorableUnit element with attribute type that provides a reference to the corresponding type. This will still satisfy most of the goals of the "compressed representation", for example, low cost of representing complex derived types, and not tracking usages to predefined types through KDM relations (only relations to NamedTypes). This suggestion originates from an external reviewer, who is implementing KDM.

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