TACoS’04 Preliminary Version Toward Translating Design Constraints to Run-Time Assertions

Inconsistency between design descriptions and implementation might be reduced if constraints associated with entities (e.g., OCL assertions in UML) were propagated to run-time assertions in corresponding parts of an implementation. We describe an approach in which constraints in a fixed design assertion language are propagated using translation rules that can be selected or customized for dif-ferent implementation programming languages or assertion packages. Translation rules are kept simple by exploiting existing assertion packages where possible. We have implemented key parts of a prototype tool for translating OCL assertions to implementation assertions. We illustrate the approach by applying the prototype tool to an example, contrast it with other current proposals which rely more on run-time interpretation, and discuss some issues in design assertion propagation. Key words: Design assertions, UML, OCL, transformation rules.