Skip to main content

Partial modeling

Refinery allow precisely expressing unknown, uncertain or even contradictory information using four-valued logic. During model generation, unknown aspects of the partial model get refined into concrete (true or false) facts until the generated model is completed, or a contradiction is reached.

The Belnap–Dunn four-valued logic supports the following truth values:

  • true values correspond to facts known about the model, e.g., that a node is the instance of a given class or there is a reference between two nodes.
  • false values correspond to facts that are known not to hold, e.g., that a node is not an instance of a given class or there is no reference between two nodes.
  • unknown values express uncertain properties and design decisions yet to be made. During model refinement, unknown values are gradually replaced with true and false values until a consistent and concrete model is derived.
  • error values represent contradictions and validation failures in the model. One a model contains an error value, it can’t be refined into a consistent model anymore.

Assertions​

Assertions express facts about a partial model. An assertion is formed by a symbol and an argument list of nodes in parentheses. Possible symbols include classes, references, and predicates. Nodes appearing in the argument list are automatically added to the model.

A negative assertion with a false truth value is indicated by prefixing it with !.

Consider the following metamodel:

class Region {
    contains Vertex[] vertices
}
class Vertex.
class State extends Vertex.

Along with the following set of assertions:

Region(r1).
Vertex(v1).
Vertex(v2).
!State(v2).
vertices(r1, v1).
vertices(r1, v2).
!vertices(Region::new, v1).
!vertices(Region::new, v2).
Region::newRegionState::newVertexStateverticesv1VertexStater1Regionv2Vertexverticesverticesvertices

It is true that r1 is an instance of the class Region, while v1 and v2 are instances of the class Vertex. We also assert that v2 is not an instance of the class State, but it is unknown whether v1 is an instance of the class State. Types that are unknown are shown in a lighter color and with an outlined icon.

It is true that there is a vertices reference between r1 and v1, as well as r1 and v2, but there is no such reference from Region::new to the same vertices. As no information is provided, it is unknown whether State::new is a vertex of any Region instance. References that are unknown are shown in a lighter color and with a dashed line.

Propagation​

Refinery can automatically infer some facts about the partial model based on the provided assertions by information propagation. The set of assertions in the example above is equivalent to the following:

vertices(r1, v1).
vertices(r1, v2).
!State(v2).

By the type constraints of the vertices reference, Refinery can infer that r1 is a Region instance and v1 and v2 are Vertex instances. Since State is a subclass of Vertex, it is still unknown whether v1 is a State instance, but v2 is explicitly forbidden from being such by the negative assertion !State(v2). We may omit !vertices(Region::new, v1) and !vertices(Region::new, v2), since v1 and v2 may be a target of only one containment reference.

Contradictory assertions lead to error values in the partial model:

State(v1).
!Vertex(v1).
v1VertexState

Default assertions​

Assertions marked with the default keyword have lower priority that other assertions. They may contain wildcard arguments * to specify information about all nodes in the graph. However, they can be overridden by more specific assertions that are not marked with the default keyword.

To make sure that the reference vertices is false everywhere except where explicitly asserted, we may add a default assertion:

default !vertices(*, *).
vertices(r1, v1).
vertices(r2, v2).
vertices(r3, v3).
?vertices(r1, State::new).
State::newVertexStater1Regionverticesv1VertexStateverticesr2Regionv2VertexStateverticesv3VertexStater3Regionvertices

We can prefix an assertion with ? to explicitly assert that some fact about the partial model is unknown. This is useful for overriding negative default assertions.

Multi-objects​

The special symbols exists and equals control the number of graph nodes represented by an object in a partial model.

By default, exists is true for all objects. An object o with ?exists(o) (i.e., exists(o) explicitly set to unknown) may be removed from the partial model. Therefore, it represents at least 0 graph nodes.

By default, equals is true for its diagonal, i.e., we have equals(o, o) for all object o. For off-diagonal pairs, i.e., (p, q) with p not equal to q, we always have !equals(p, q): distinct objects can never be merged. If we set a diagonal entry to unknown by writing ?equals(o, o), the object o becomes a multi-object: it can be freely split into multiple graph nodes. Therefore, multi-objects represent possibly more than 1 graph nodes.

exists(o)equals(o, o)Number of nodesDescription
truetrue1graph node
unknowntrue0..1removable graph node
trueunknown1..*multi-object
unknownunknown0..*removable multi-object

In the Refinery web UI, ?exists(o) is represented with a dashed border, while ?equals(o, o)

node(node).

node(removable).
?exists(removable).

node(multi).
?equals(multi, multi).

node(removableMulti).
?exists(removableMulti).
?equals(removableMulti, removableMulti).
node [1]existsequalsremovable [0..1]existsequalsmulti [1..*]existsequalsremovableMulti [0..*]existsequals
info

You may use the Filter panel icon filter panel icon in Refinery to toggle the visibility of special symbols like exists and equals. You may either show Unknown value icon both true and unknown values or True value icon just true values. The object scopes toggle will also show the number of graph nodes represented by an object in square brackets after its name, like in the figure above.

By default, a new object C::new is added for each non-abstract class C with ?exists(C::new) and ?equals(C::new, C::new). This multi-object represents all potential instances of the class. To assert that no new instances of C should be added to the generated model, you may write !exists(C::new).

You may use the multi keyword to quickly defined a (removable) multi-object:

multi removableMulti.
% This is equivalent to:
% ?exists(removableMulti).
% ?equals(removableMulti, removableMulti).

Type scopes​

Type scopes offer finer-grained control over the number of graph nodes in the generated model (as represented by the multi-objects) that exists or equals assertions.

A type scope constraint is formed by a unary symbol (a class or a predicate with a single parameter) and scope range. Ranges have a form similar to multiplicity constraints: a range n..m indicates a lower bound of n and an upper bound of m. While an upper bound of * indicates a possibly unbounded number of objects, generated models will always be finite. Like for multiplicity constraints, the case n..n can be abbreviated as n.

The number of nodes in the generated model can be controlled using the node special symbol. For example, we may write the following to generate a model with at least 100 at and most 120 nodes:

scope node = 100..200.

A scope declaration may prescribe type scope constraint for any number of symbols, separated by ,. Multiple scope declarations are also permitted. Multiple ranges provided for the same symbol will be intersected, i.e., they influence the generated model simultaneously.

In other words,

scope Region = 10, State = 80..120.
scope State = 100..150.
% Equivalent to:
scope Region = 10, State = 100..120.

The object scopes option in the Filter panel icon filter panel may help in exploring the effects of object scopes.

Consider the example

class Region {
    contains Vertex[] vertices
}
class Vertex.
class State extends Vertex.
scope node = 100..120, Vertex = 50..*.
Region::new [0..70]RegionState::new [0..120]VertexStateVertex::new [0..120]Vertexverticesvertices

Notice that Refinery could determine that there can be no more than 70 Region instances in the generated model, since at least 50 of the 100..120 nodes in the model must be Vertex instances. However, since State is a subclass of Vertex (i.e., State::new is also an instance of Vertex), the range 50..* is shared between both Vertex::new and State::new, resulting in both representing 0..120 nodes. Nevertheless, every generated model will obey the scope constraint exactly, i.e., will have between 100 and 120 node, at least 50 of which are Vertex instances.

By providing more information, Refinery can determine more precise ranges for multi-objects. For example, we may strengthen the scope constraints as follows:

scope node = 100..120, Vertex = 50..*, State = 20.
Region::new [0..70]RegionState::new [20]VertexStateVertex::new [30..100]Vertexverticesvertices

Incremental scopes​

We may specify an incremental object scope with the += operator to determine the number of new instances to be added to the model. This is only allowed for symbol that are classes with no subclasses, as it directly influences the number of nodes represented by the corresponding ::new object.

For example, to ensure that between 5 and 7 State instances are added to the model, we may write:

State(s1).
State(s2).
scope State += 5..7.

Since s1 and s2 are also instances of the State class, the generated concrete model will have between 7 and 9 State instances altogether.