Component systems comprise components linked in various ways. We illustrate an approach to expressing and selecting appropriate semantics for components, using as a starting point UML class diagrams. Like most diagrammatic notations, UML does not have a fixed interpretation. We present a meta-modular framework for the combined use of UML and Z, based on two levels. At the meta-level, we express modular semantic interpretation of UML diagrams by using templates and generics. At the instantiation-level, UML models are translated into Z specifications by instantiating the corresponding meta-level semantic interpretations. This allows the definition of semantic interpretations that are precise and unambiguous in a modular fashion, allowing tailoring of semantic interpretations by plugging-in or plugging-out modules representing some semantic aspect, and enhancing the readability, conciseness and abstraction of the resulting Z specification.
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@inproceedings(SS-FACS03, author = "Nuno Am\'{a}lio and Susan Stepney and Fiona Polack", title = "Modular {UML} Semantics: Interpretations in {Z} Based on Templates and Generics", crossref = "FACS03" ) @proceedings(FACS03, title = "FACS'03 Workshop on Formal Aspects of Component Software, Pisa, Italy, September 2003", booktitle = "FACS'03 Workshop on Formal Aspects of Component Software, Pisa, Italy, September 2003", editor = "Hung Dang Van and Zhiming Liu", series = "UNU/IIST Technical Report", volume = 284, year = 2003 )