Applying traceability and cloning techniques to compose input-destructive model transformations into an input-preserving chain

Special purpose translation algorithms have been developed for mature modeling languages and formalisms. It is desirable to reuse these algorithms when developing translations for new modeling languages. When reusing transformation algorithms that destroy the input model while producing the output model, special techniques are needed for the development of the composite transformation. This paper discusses two previously unpublished techniques that we have applied for reusing an input-destructive translation from petri-nets to statecharts when realizing a new translation from activity diagrams to statecharts.