Modelling language
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In computer science and allied fields of information management and business process modeling, modelling languages enable software architects, business analysts, and others to specify the requirements of an organizational or software system on a 'top' or architectural level. These languages seek to diagrammatically render system requirements in a manner that management, user groups, and other stakeholders can understand, with a goal of eliciting feedback from these groups.
What distinguishes modelling languages from diagramming techniques, is in their ability to produce executable and testable software artifacts and simulations. Whereas a diagramming technique ends with a pictorial representation of user requirements, a modelling language enables the production of software artifacts from these representations. Tool support in modelling languages includes source code generators, debuggers, and means of simulating the behavior of these systems in action. Since the mid 1990's, tool support also started to include model checking and other means of software verification.
Although one secondary goal of modelling languages aims to support programming without programmers, historically software developers have become involved once the requirements specification is complete. Increased software complexity, particularly the ability to provide software support for concurrency requires knowledge of parallel computing and distributed systems.
A large number of modelling languages appear in the literature, however, the most notable languages are ones having the most extensive tool support. As of 2005 these include:
- Unified Modeling Language (UML) incorporates a wide variety of diagramming techniques and topologies. Its extensive underlying tool support enables specifications written using one technique or 'view' to be transparently converted and rendered in another view, eventually resulting in executable artifacts.
- Petri nets use variations on exactly one diagramming technique and topology, namely the bipartite graph. The simplicity of its basic user interface easily enabled extensive tool support over the years, particularly in the areas of model checking, graphically-oriented simulation, and software verification.