Message sequence chart: Difference between revisions

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{{Short description|Interaction diagram from the SDL family}}

[[File:Typical MSC (Message Sequence Chart).png|thumb|The diagram shows three entities. At start the phone is disconnected. A user tries to establish a connection. A connection request is sent to the switch and a timer is started. An alternative deals with two possibles responses: 1 - The timer goes off because the switch did not reply and the phone goes back to the disconnected state.2 - The switch grants the connection and the call is established.]]

A '''message sequence chart''' (or '''MSC''') is an [[interaction diagram]] from the [[Specification and Description Language|SDL]] family standardized by the [[International Telecommunication Union]].

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==History==

The first version of the MSC standard was released inon March 12, 1993.

The 1996 version added references, ordering and [[Inline expansion|inlining]] expressions concepts, and introduced HMSC<ref>{{cite web

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|author = Øystein Haugen

|accessdate = 2009-09-19

|deadurlurl-status = yesdead

|archiveurl = https://web.archive.org/web/20110607104113/http://folk.uio.no/intime/msc2000.pdf

|archivedate = 2011-06-07

|df =

}}</ref> added object orientation, refined the use of data and time in diagrams, and added the concept of remote method calls.<ref>{{cite web

| url=http://www.sdl-forum.org/MSC2000present/sld007.htm

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==Comparison to UML==

UML 2.0 [[Sequence diagram|Sequence Diagram]] is strongly inspired by the ITU-T MSC. Still, for historical reasons, the default basic principles are quite different:

* Lifelines

:* In an MSC, the vertical lines are autonomous execution entities. They usually represent state machines executing in parallel. The state machines need not be on the same computer.

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* Arrows

:* In an MSC an arrow is usually an asynchronous message sent from one entity to another one. Once the message is sent the sending entity resumes its execution.

:* In a Sequence Diagram an arrow is usually understood as an operation call on a class. It is therefore synchronous and the calling entity hangs until the operation returns.{{fact|date=November 2022}}

It has been said that MSC has been considered as a candidate for the [[Unified Modeling Language#Interaction diagrams|interaction diagrams]] in UML.<ref>{{cite web

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|title = Message Sequence Charts

|date = 2003-04-08

|author = [[David Harel]]

|accessdate = 2009-09-20

|deadurlurl-status = yesdead

|archiveurl = https://web.archive.org/web/20060826195305/http://www.comp.nus.edu.sg/~thiagu/public_papers/surveymsc.pdf

|archivedate = 2006-08-26

| author-link =[[ David Harel]]

|df =

}}</ref><ref>{{cite webjournal

| url=http://www.springerlink.com/content/hfnna0r9jbl54ya4/

| title=LSCs: Breathing Life into Message Sequence Charts

| publisherjournal=[[Formal Methods in System Design]]

| volume=19

| pages=45–80

| date=2005-02-22

| author=[[David Harel]]

| publisher=[[Formal Methods in System Design]]

| doi=10.1023/A:1011227529550

| author=[[David Harel]]

| s2cid=1551133

| accessdate=2009-09-20}}</ref><ref>{{cite web

|author-link = David Harel}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal

| url=http://portal.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=582429

| title=Multiple instances and symbolic variables in executable sequence charts

| journal=ACM SIGPLAN Notices

| volume=37

| issue=11

| pages=83–100

| year=2002

| author=David Harel

| publisher=[[Association for Computing Machinery]]

| doi=10.1145/583854.582429

| author=[[David Harel]]

| citeseerx=10.1.1.20.5984

| accessdate=2009-09-20}}</ref>

| author-link=David Harel

}}</ref>

==See also==

* [http://www.di.univaq.it/psc2ba/ PSC] Property Sequence Chart, a way to describe properties in an MSC<ref>{{cite webbook

| url=https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007%2F978-3-642-38911-5_2

| title=Property Verification with MSC

| year=2013

| publisher=Springer

|author1=Emmanuel Gaudin |author2title =Eric BrunelSDL }}</ref>2013: orModel-Driven aDependability SequenceEngineering| Diagram.volume=7916

| pages=19–35

|author2=Eric Brunel | doi=10.1007/978-3-642-38911-5_2

| series=Lecture Notes in Computer Science

| isbn=978-3-642-38910-8

}}</ref> or a Sequence Diagram.

* [[Specification and Description Language|SDL]] Specification and Description Language, an MSC related ITU-T language.

* [[Unified Modeling Language#Interaction diagrams|Interaction diagrams in UML]].