On the Executable Nature of Models

Abstract : Within the model-driven engineering field, the concept of "i-DSML" (interpreted Domain Specific Modeling Language) refers to executable models which are interpreted through an engine. While several works discussed the key ingredients of an i-DSML, few of them answered the original question: What is the class of models that are executable by nature and those that are not? This paper attempts to provide some answers by proposing two discriminating criteria: The possibility of defining execution steps and the reification of the behavior of the running system into the executed model. On this basis, we reconsider some well-known DSML and notice a paradoxical situation with UML diagrams. \textcopyright 2016, CEUR-WS. All rights reserved.