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In the description of UML, the following conventions have been used:
• When referring to constructs in UML, not their representation in the metamodel, normal text is used.
• Metaclass names that consist of appended nouns/adjectives, initial embedded capitals are used (e.g., ‘ModelElement,’ ‘StructuralFeature’).
• Names of metaassociations are written in the same manner as metaclasses (e.g., ‘ElementReference’).
• Initial embedded capital is used for names that consist of appended nouns/adjectives (e.g., ‘ownedElement,’ ‘allContents’).
• Boolean metaattribute names always start with ‘is’ (e.g., ‘isAbstract’).
• Enumeration types always end with “Kind? (e.g., ‘AggregationKind’).
• While referring to metaclasses, metaassociations, metaattributes, etc. in the text, the exact names as they appear in the model are always used.
• No visibilities are presented in the diagrams, as all elements are public.
• If a mandatory section does not apply for a metaclass, the text ‘No additional XXX’ is used, where ‘XXX’ is the name of the heading. If an optional section is not applicable, it is not included.
For textual notations a variant of the Backus-Naur Form (BNF) is often used to specify the legal formats. The conventions
of this BNF are:
• All non-terminals are in italics and enclosed between angle brackets (e.g. ,<non-terminal>).
• All terminals (keywords, strings, etc.), are enclosed between single quotes (e.g., 'or').
• Non-terminal production rule definitions are signified with the '::=' operator.
• Repetition of an item is signified by an asterisk placed after that item: '*'
• Alternative choices in a production are separated by the '|' symbol; e.g., <alternative-A> | <alternative-B>.
• Items that are optional are enclosed in square brackets (e.g., [<item-x>]).
• Where items need to be grouped they are enclosed in simple parenthesis. For example, (<item-1> | <item-2>) * signifies a sequence of one or more items, each of which is <item-1> or <item-2>.