MOTL: a textual language for trace specification of state machines and associations

In a model-driven development (MDD) environment where most or all of the source code is generated from models, there is a lack of tools for model-level tracing, in which generated execution traces can be linked to model level constructs. This lack of tools might inhibit the use of MDD, since it forces modelers to do dynamic analysis at a lower level of abstraction. In this paper, we propose a solution allowing modelers to textually specify the tracing of modeling constructs: attributes, state machines and associations using Umple. The resulting execution traces then contain model construct links. We describe the syntax and semantics of the language, as well as the generated execution traces, and give an example.