Model-based development : Time line for the introduction of modeling languages

The following are approximate indications when certain concepts were first introduced.

• 1950ies and 60ies: Automata for modeling hardware systems
• 60ies: first high-level programming languages
• 70ies:
  • modeling languages based on first-order logic and set theory, such as Vienne Definition Modeling Language (VDM); later the Z language was defined in the 80ies.
• use of automata for the description of communication protocols (first paper in 1968)
• first extended FSM languages (including variable and interaction parameters), one particular dialect of this approch was SDL, standardized by the ITU. Other similar languages developed in the 80ies: Estelle (standardized by ISO), State Charts (proposed by D. Harel), SDL further developed
• Petri nets for describing systems with concurrency (concept initially defined in Petri's PhD in 1968)
• 70ies and 80ies: use of (control) flow charts, and data flow charts for defining more abstract views of dynamic behavior than provided by high-level programming language
• 80ies and 90ies:
  • various proposals for OOADM (object-oriented analysis and design methods);
  • development of automated tools for implementation, verification and testing of modeled systems, first in the area of communication protocols (I published papers on verification of communicating FSM models by reachability analysis (see later in this course) in 1978, automated implementation from an Estelle-like language in 1987 (a tool for generating implementation code from a given State Machine model), derivation of test cases from FSM models in 1984, and a paper on the overview of these issues in 1990: "Protocol specifications for OSI"). For a historial view of these development in the 1970ies and '80ies, see "Protocol Engineering - An Historical Perspective".
• 90ies: efforts to unify the different OOADMs: work on UML, standardized by OMG. Commercial tools for different modeling languages appeared, including several for SDL.
• 2000s:
  • Version 2 of UML;
  • merging of SDL with UML (as a profile);
  • application of UML to other areas of application (in addition to software system development), for instance: modeling of hardware-software co-designs, electronic hardware systems, mechatronic systems, workflow and enterprises modeling;
  • concern for extensions for supporting particular modeling requirements for these various applications, e.g. SysML developed by OMG
  • Concern for the early stages of development: definition of requirements , e.g. URN (User Requirements Notation) developed within the ITU.
  • Formalization and clarification of the semantics of UML in order to facilitate the construction of automated tools for implementation, verification and testing.
  • Further development of other competing approaches in the research community.