UML Model Execution via Code Generation

Simulating design models makes early verification of the software’s business logic possible. Model simulators can be implemented using an interpreter, but it provides limited runtime performance. This is only acceptable if the only use case of the tool is interactive model execution and debugging. If the model executor tool is to be used for automated regression testing, execution time becomes an important factor. In such cases generating code is a better option compared to interpretation. This paper documents our experience from an ongoing project which supports both the interactive and the automated model simulation use cases via code generation. It proposes an architecture and shows techniques we found useful in this setup, and reports on a freely available UML model simulator implemented along these lines.