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Object Constraint Language — Open Issues

  • Acronym: OCL
  • Issues Count: 11
  • Description: Issues not resolved
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Issues not resolved

Issues Descriptions

Inconsistent OclVoid::oclAsType return

  • Key: OCL25-198
  • Legacy Issue Number: 19750
  • Status: open  
  • Source: Model Driven Solutions ( Dr. Edward Willink)
  • Summary:

    7.4.6 states: If the actual type of the object, at evaluation time, is not
    a subtype of the type to which it is re-typed, then the result of oclAsType is invalid.

    7.5.8 states: self.oclAsType(A).p1 – accesses the p1 property defined in A - this is incompatible with the no-class-change-to-A so A::p1 is not available for null.

    But the normative 11.3.2 states: oclAsType(type : Classifier) : T
    Evaluates to self.

    The OCL 2.4 contribution to 11.3.2 was a typo. It should be "evaluates to invalid".

  • Reported: OCL 2.3.1 — Tue, 21 Apr 2015 04:00 GMT
  • Updated: Wed, 5 Jan 2022 15:34 GMT

Introduce a Safe Navigation Operator

  • Key: OCL25-154
  • Legacy Issue Number: 18516
  • Status: open  
  • Source: Model Driven Solutions ( Dr. Edward Willink)
  • Summary:

    Languages such as Groovy have found it helpful to intrioduce the safe navigation operator ?: so that navigation over null yields null rather than a problem (invalid in OCL).

    In OCL it could be a pure syntax sugar:

    (x?.y) = (if x == null then null else x.y endif)

    or perhaps an additional PropertyCallExp operator

  • Reported: OCL 2.3.1 — Fri, 1 Mar 2013 05:00 GMT
  • Updated: Sat, 19 Jan 2019 11:40 GMT

Indaequate Issue 15836 resultion of negative CollectionRange

  • Key: OCL25-197
  • Legacy Issue Number: 19820
  • Status: open  
  • Source: Model Driven Solutions ( Dr. Edward Willink)
  • Summary:

    Issue 15836 suggests that a negative CollectionRanbge should be invalid even after considering the Sequence

    {1..size}

    ->forAll idiom.

    The idiom clearly requires that a negative range gives an empty range.

  • Reported: OCL 2.3.1 — Mon, 27 Jul 2015 04:00 GMT
  • Updated: Thu, 8 Oct 2015 14:12 GMT

Align OCL with out/inout UML Operation Parameters

  • Key: OCL25-119
  • Legacy Issue Number: 18255
  • Status: open  
  • Source: Model Driven Solutions ( Dr. Edward Willink)
  • Summary:

    OCL 9.4.5 gives no recommendation on how to handle the multiple out capability of UML.

    Suggest that the mapping of a UML operation with out or inout parameters to an OCL operation do the following:

    remove all 'out' parameters from the OCL parameter list so that the OCL parameter list contains only 'in' and 'inout' parameters with 'read-only' behavior

    change the return type to a Tuple whose part-names and types are determined by the conventional 'result' and the 'out' and 'inout' parameters.

    It is also desirable to relax the upper multiplicity bound to allow multiple bodyExpressions in Complete OCL, one bodyExpression per returning parameter.

  • Reported: OCL 2.3.1 — Fri, 9 Nov 2012 05:00 GMT
  • Updated: Thu, 8 Oct 2015 14:12 GMT

Align OCL bodyExpression and UML bodyCondition

  • Key: OCL25-118
  • Legacy Issue Number: 18254
  • Status: open  
  • Source: Model Driven Solutions ( Dr. Edward Willink)
  • Summary:

    OCL 12.10 awaits alignment with the UML 2.0 metamodel.

    Consequently, the relationship between a result-valued OCL bodyExpression and a Boolean-valued UML bodyCondition is unspecified. A common pragmatic resolution has been to equate the two and ignore the Boolean-valued requirement of a UML Constraint.

    In order to accommodate prevailing practice and also support UML's multiple out/inouts, suggest:

    Reinterpret the grammar

    prePostOrBodyDeclCS ::= ‘body’ (simpleNameCS)? ‘:’ OclExpressionCS

    such that

    the simpleNameCS is the name of the return parameter with 'result' as the anonymous default

    OclExpressionCS is a result-valued bodyExpression if OclExpressionCS does not reference the simpleNameCS or its defgault.
    OclExpressionCS is a Boolean-valued bodyCondition if the return parameter is referenced.

    [Allow multiple body declarations.]

    Thus

    "body: ..." is a shortform of "body result: ..." which is a shortform for "body result: result = ..."

    and

    body: ...
    body A: ...
    body B: ...

    could be the specification of a UML operation

    f(out a : A, inout b : B, in c : C) : Z

  • Reported: OCL 2.3.1 — Fri, 9 Nov 2012 05:00 GMT
  • Updated: Thu, 8 Oct 2015 14:12 GMT

Complete OCL document must be a Package

  • Key: OCL25-46
  • Legacy Issue Number: 18539
  • Status: open  
  • Source: Model Driven Solutions ( Dr. Edward Willink)
  • Summary:

    In order for a UML model to import some Complete OCL for use in the model's constraints, a Complete OCL document must be a (derived) Package. Any tool can therefore import Complete OCL using its conventional metamodel import syntax; just needs per-tool support.

    Complete OCL documents must not conflict. For instance if MM imports COD1 for its own purposes and then your usage imports MM (and COD1) and also COD2, the declarations in COD2 may not introduce anything that requires re-analysis of the OCL expressions in MM or COD1; the only change to MM+COD1 execution may arise through additional derived virtual functions.

    Avoiding conflicts requires some strong WFRs.

    Once conflicts are avoided, Complete OCL documents can be pre-compiled and loaded in compiled form.

  • Reported: OCL 2.3.1 — Sun, 10 Mar 2013 05:00 GMT
  • Updated: Thu, 8 Oct 2015 14:11 GMT

How does Set distinguish duplicate values?

  • Key: OCL25-23
  • Legacy Issue Number: 19020
  • Status: open  
  • Source: Model Driven Solutions ( Dr. Edward Willink)
  • Summary:

    In 11.6.2: "It [Set] contains elements without duplicates."

    What is a duplicate?

    In 10.2.2.13 SetTypeValue
    "All elements belonging to a set value have unique values.
    self.element->isUnique(e : Element | e.value)"

    >From 11.9.1.3 isUnique, the basis of comparison is <>:
    forAll (x, y | (x.iter <> y.iter) implies (x.value <> y.value))

    But what is the Element::value to which "<>" is applied. It is far from clear that the semantics of the Element in Section 10 which is completely unrelated to MOF::Element leads to the obvious answer.

    Suggest adding the obvious WFR.

    context Set
    inv: forAll(x | self->count = 1)

    (count is already defined using "=")

    [And chnage 11.9.1.3 isUnique to use this much more readable formulation.]

  • Reported: OCL 2.3.1 — Wed, 23 Oct 2013 04:00 GMT
  • Updated: Thu, 8 Oct 2015 14:11 GMT

Support zero and multiple context invariants

  • Key: OCL25-5
  • Legacy Issue Number: 19127
  • Status: open  
  • Source: Model Driven Solutions ( Dr. Edward Willink)
  • Summary:

    A.5.1.5 suggests that an invariant may be specified for many contexts. The Complete OCL syntax does not support this.

    Many users like to write grandiose truths:

    context X
    inv: X.allInstances()->...

    These do not use the context and so naively increase the complexity from O(N) to O(N*N).

    Suggest allowing such constraints to be context-less constraints provided by the Package rather than a spurious Classifier.

  • Reported: OCL 2.3.1 — Wed, 27 Nov 2013 05:00 GMT
  • Updated: Thu, 8 Oct 2015 14:11 GMT

Unify @pre, ^, ^^, ? as extensibility mechanisms

  • Key: OCL25-6
  • Legacy Issue Number: 18882
  • Status: open  
  • Source: Model Driven Solutions ( Dr. Edward Willink)
  • Summary:

    The OCL expression syntax is difficult to extend for other purposes. The @pre postcondition operator, and the ,^,? tokens are examples of extension of the core syntax.

    Perhaps @pre could be generalized as an instance of an @token

    {....}

    suffix which could be parsed as an AnnotationExp for tooling to ignore but support extension for.

    Can more arbitrary punctuation such as ,^,?,#,% be generalized?

  • Reported: OCL 2.3.1 — Fri, 30 Aug 2013 04:00 GMT
  • Updated: Thu, 8 Oct 2015 14:11 GMT

StateSpec for oclInState()

  • Key: OCL25-2
  • Legacy Issue Number: 19825
  • Status: open  
  • Source: Anonymous
  • Summary:

    Please add that the StateSpec may include the names of Regions.

  • Reported: OCL 2.3.1 — Wed, 5 Aug 2015 04:00 GMT
  • Updated: Thu, 8 Oct 2015 14:11 GMT

oclInState instead of oclIsInState

  • Key: OCL25-1
  • Legacy Issue Number: 19824
  • Status: open  
  • Source: Anonymous
  • Summary:

    The name of the predefined property is "oclInState" according to chapter 7.6.9. In chapter 11.3.1 the name "oclIsInState" is used.

  • Reported: OCL 2.3.1 — Wed, 5 Aug 2015 04:00 GMT
  • Updated: Thu, 8 Oct 2015 14:11 GMT