SCE — Semantic Reference mixes too many use cases

The Semantic Reference mixes the use cases of referencing an external concept and defining a kind in an extensible set of kinds.

Split SemanticReference into conceptReference and Kind + rename Vocabulary into KindSet

The SCEVocabulary class will be renamed to SCEKindSet and SemanticReference will be renamed to Kind (which are the terms of the KindSet). This separates the terms of a KindSet with Semantic References. Other changes will be reflected in the details of the metamodel (see Convenience Document).

Further, a property named "conceptReference" of type URI [0..1] will be added to SCEElement to provide the reference capability.

This will affect other aspects of Vocabularies and creating extendable lists. Going forward, SCEKindSets and Kinds will be used for extendable lists.

• SCEKindSet will include a kind relationship to the new class Kind [0..*]

• Add a new class Kind that specializes SCERootElement (not SCEElement as SemanticReference did)
  • Include a conceptReference (URI) property since it does not get the property from SCEElement. We still need to connect Kinds to external definitions.

Use of KindSets for example in SDMN

• Languages using SCE, e.g., SDMN will have a specialization of the SCEKindSet to provide the specific context for the list of terms (e.g., ItemKindSet)
  • Redefine the “kind” association to be to the new Specialized Kind (see next)

• Specialize Kind to provide the specific Kinds that are needed (e.g., ItemKind)

• The class that needs the KindSet will include a relationship to the Specialized Kind and the relationship will be named “[KindName]Ref”

• An instance library will be created for the new KindSet

• An Informative section of the spec can show an instance diagram of the Kinds that will be a part of the new KindSet