The purpose of this manual is to serve as a reference and general user?s guide to aid in the correct specification of action semantics for UML models. Although originally designed for models used with the BridgePoint UML Suite, the language described can be used to define the action semantics for any UML model in any tool.

The Object Action Language is written to satisfy the following goals:

• Readability - Modelers must be able to easily understand the OAL for development and reviews
• Derivation - Event generation and data access information is captured for derivation of the Object Collaboration Diagrams and Package Dependency Diagrams for both asynchronous (event) and synchronous (data access) communication
• Simulation - The UML models can be simulated through interpretation of the actions
• Translation - Richness of expression is provided while maintaining a specification that can be automatically translated on a target architecture