Emerging OCL tools

The Object Constraint Language (OCL) is a notational language for analysis and design of software systems, which is used in conjunction with the Unified Modelling Language (UML) to specify the semantics of the building blocks precisely. OCL can also be used by other languages, notations, methods and software tools in order to specify restrictions and other expressions of their models. Likewise, OCL is used by the Object Management Group (OMG) in the definition of other fast spreading industrial standards such as Meta Object Facility (MOF) or XML Metadata Interchange (XMI).Support tools aimed at making this language easier to use are becoming available. These tools are capable of supporting and handling OCL expressions. This paper presents a comparative study of the main tools currently available, both commercial and freely available ones. The study is very practical, with the advantages and disadvantages of the different tools being pointed out. The evaluations made may be of use in helping those developers and analysts who already use the language, as well as those who intend to use it in the near future, to choose the OCL tool which best adapts to their requirements.