System Model Semantics of Statecharts

TL;DR

This paper defines a formal semantics for UML/P Statecharts using a mathematical system model, simplifying and mapping existing semantics into this framework to improve understanding and consistency.

Contribution

It introduces a denotational semantics for UML/P Statecharts based on a formal system model, simplifying complex concepts and integrating existing semantics.

Findings

Semantics defined as a mapping into the system model

Simplification of UML/P Statecharts while preserving semantics

Framework for mapping existing Statechart semantics

Abstract

In this report, semantics for Statecharts is defined based on a mathematical model of object systems called "system model". The semantics definition is detailed for UML/P Statecharts, a variant of Statecharts which restricts the use of a few methodologically and semantically difficult concepts. After transforming full UML/P Statecharts to simplified but semantically equivalent Statecharts, the semantics is defined denotationally as a mapping into the system model. It is also sketched how already existing Statechart semantics can be mapped into the system model. This report follows, in which we introduced our approach in detail and defined semantics for UML class diagrams.