This book discusses how model-based approaches can improve the daily practice of software professionals. This is known as Model-Driven Software Engineering (MDSE) or, simply, Model-Driven Engineering (MDE). MDSE practices have proved to increase efficiency and effectiveness in software development, as demonstrated by various quantitative and qualitative studies. MDSE adoption in the software industry is foreseen to grow exponentially in the near future, e.g., due to the convergence of software development and business analysis. The aim of this book is to provide you with an agile and flexible tool to introduce you to the MDSE world, thus allowing you to quickly understand its basic principles and techniques and to choose the right set of MDSE instruments for your needs so that you can start to benefit from MDSE right away. The book is organized into two main parts. The first part discusses the foundations of MDSE in terms of basic concepts (i.e., models and transformations), driving principles, application scenarios and current standards, like the well-known MDA initiative proposed by OMG (Object Management Group) as well as the practices on how to integrate MDSE in existing development processes. The second part deals with the technical aspects of MDSE, spanning from the basics on when and how to build a domain-specific modeling language, to the description of Model-to-Text and Model-to-Model transformations, and the tools that support the management of MDSE projects. The book is targeted to a diverse set of readers, spanning: professionals, CTOs, CIOs, and team managers that need to have a bird's eye vision on the matter, so as to take the appropriate decisions when it comes to choosing the best development techniques for their company or team; software analysts, developers, or designers that expect to use MDSE for improving everyday work productivity, either by applying the basic modeling techniques and notations or by defining new domain-specific modeling languages and applying end-to-end MDSE practices in the software factory; and academic teachers and students to address undergrad and postgrad courses on MDSE. In addition to the contents of the book, more resources are provided on the book's website http://www.mdse-book.com/, including the examples presented in the book. Table of Contents: Introduction / MDSE Principles / MDSE Use Cases / Model-Driven Architecture (MDA) / Integration of MDSE in your Development Process / Modeling Languages at a Glance / Developing your Own Modeling Language / Model-to-Model Transformations / Model-to-Text Transformations / Managing Models / Summary

Model-Driven Software Engineering in Practice

Domain-specific modeling languages (DSMLs) promise clear advantages over general-purpose modeling languages. However, their design poses a fundamental challenge. While economies of scale advocate the development of DSMLs that can be used in a wide range of cases, modeling productivity demands more specific language concepts tuned to individual requirements. Inspired by the actual use of technical languages (German: “Fachsprachen”), this paper presents a novel multilevel modeling approach to conceptual modeling and to the design of information systems. Unlike traditional language architectures such as Meta Object Facility (MOF), it features a recursive architecture that allows for an arbitrary number of classification levels and, hence, for the design of hierarchies of DSMLs ranging from reference DSMLs to “local” DSMLs. It can not only diminish the conflict inherent in designing DSMLs, but enables the reuse and integration of software artifacts in general. It also helps reduce modeling complexity by relaxing the rigid dichotomy between specialization and instantiation. Furthermore, it integrates a meta-modeling language with a metamodel of a reflective meta-programming language, thereby allowing for executable models. The specification of the language architecture is supplemented by the description of use scenarios that illustrate the potential of multilevel modeling and a critical discussion of its peculiarities.

Multilevel Modeling: Toward a New Paradigm of Conceptual Modeling and Information Systems Design

Appropriation is the process by which people adopt and adapt technologies, fitting them into their working practices. It is similar to customisation, but concerns the adoption patterns of technology and the transformation of practice at a deeper level. Understanding appropriation is a key problem for developing interactive systems, since it critical to the success of technology deployment. It is also an important research issue, since appropriation lies at the intersection of workplace studies and design.

Most accounts of appropriation in the research literature have taken a social perspective. In contrast, this paper explores appropriation in terms of the technical features that support it. Drawing examples from applications developed as part of a novel document management system, it develops an initial set of design principles for appropriable technologies. These principles are particularly relevant to component-based approaches to system design that blur the traditional application boundaries.

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The Appropriation of Interactive Technologies: Some Lessons from Placeless Documents

Spoofax is a language workbench for efficient, agile development of textual domain-specific languages with state-of-the-art IDE support. Spoofax integrates language processing techniques for parser generation, meta-programming, and IDE development into a single environment. It uses concise, declarative specifications for languages and IDE services. In this paper we describe the architecture of Spoofax and introduce idioms for high-level specifications of language semantics using rewrite rules, showing how analyses can be reused for transformations, code generation, and editor services such as error marking, reference resolving, and content completion. The implementation of these services is supported by language-parametric editor service classes that can be dynamically loaded by the Eclipse IDE, allowing new languages to be developed and used side-by-side in the same Eclipse environment.

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The spoofax language workbench: rules for declarative specification of languages and IDEs

http://sagheb.persiangig.com/Backup/4/scienc.pdf

A critical review of Knowledge-Based Engineering: An identification of research challenges

Foreword. Preface . PART 1: BACKGROUND AND MOTIVATION. 1. Introduction. 1.1 Seeking the better level of abstraction. 1.2 Code-driven and model-driven development. 1.3 An example: modeling with a general-purpose language and with a domain-specific language. 1.4 What is DSM? 1.5 When to use DSM? 1.6 Summary. 2. Business value. 2.1 Productivity. 2.2 Quality. 2.3 Leverage expertise. 2.4 The economics of DSM. 2.5 Summary. PART 2: FUNDAMENTALS. 3. DSM defined. 3.1 DSM characteristics. 3.2 Implications of DSM for users. 3.3 Difference to other modeling approaches. 3.4 Tooling for DSM. 3.5 Summary. 4. Architecture of DSM. 4.1 Introduction. 4.2 Language. 4.3 Models. 4.4 Code generator. 4.5 Domain framework and target environment. 4.6 DSM organization and process. 4.7 Summary. PART 3: DSM EXAMPLES. 5. IP telephony and call processing. 5.1 Introduction and objectives. 5.2 Development process. 5.3 Language for modeling call processing services. 5.4 Modeling IP telephony service. 5.5 Generator for XML. 5.6 Framework support. 5.7 Main results. 5.8 Summary. 6. Insurance products. 6.1 Introduction and objectives. 6.2 Development process. 6.3 Language for modeling insurances. 6.4 Modeling insurance products. 6.5 Generator for Java. 6.6 Framework support. 6.7 Main results. 6.8 Summary. 7. Home Automation. 7.1 Introduction and objectives. 7.2 Development process. 7.3 Home automation modeling language. 7.4 Home automation modeling language in use. 7.5 Generator. 7.6 Main results. 7.7 Summary. 8. Mobile phone applications using Python framework. 8.1 Introduction and objectives. 8.2 Development process. 8.3 Language for application modeling. 8.4 Modeling phone applications. 8.5 Generator for Python. 8.6 Framework support. 8.7 Main results. 8.8 Extending the solution to native S60 C++. 8.9 Summary. 9. Digital Wristwatch. 9.1 Introduction and Objectives. 9.2 Development Process. 9.3 Modeling Language. 9.4 Models. 9.5 Code Generation for Watch Models. 9.6 The Domain Framework. 9.7 Main Results. 9.8 Summary. PART 4: CREATING DSM SOLUTIONS. 10 DSM language definition. 10.1 Introduction and objectives. 10.2 Identifying and defining modeling concepts. 10.3 Formalizing languages with metamodeling. 10.4 Defining language rules. 10.5 Integrating multiple languages. 10.6 Notation for the language. 10.7 Testing the languages. 10.8 Maintaining the languages. 10.9 Summary. 11. Generator definition. 11.1 "Here's one I made earlier". 11.2 Types of generator facilities. 11.3 Generator output patterns. 11.4 Generator structure. 11.5 Process. 11.6 Summary. 12. Domain Framework. 12.1 Removing duplication from generated code. 12.2 Hiding platform details. 12.3 Providing an interface for the generator. 12.4 Summary. 13. DSM definition process. 13.1 Choosing among possible candidate domains. 13.2 Organizing for DSM. 13.3 Proof of concept. 13.4 Defining the DSM solution. 13.5 Pilot project. 13.6 DSM deployment. 13.7 DSM as a continuous process in the real world. 13.8 Summary. 14. Tools for DSM. 14.1 Different approaches to building tool support. 14.2 A Brief History of Tools. 14.3 What is needed in a DSM environment. 14.4 Current tools. 14.5 Summary. 15. DSM in use. 15.1 Model reuse. 15.2 Model sharing and splitting. 15.3 Model versioning. 15.4 Summary. 16. Conclusion. 16.1 No sweat shops--But no Fritz Lang's Metropolis either. 16.2 The onward march of DSM. Appendix A: Metamodeling Language. References. Index.

Domain-Specific Modeling: Enabling Full Code Generation

Domain-Specific Modeling

Computer Aided Software Engineering (CASE) environments have spread at a lower pace than expected. One reason for this is the immaturity of existing environments in supporting development in-the-large and by-many and their inability to address the varying needs of the software developers. In this paper we report on the development of a next generation CASE environment called MetaEdit+. The environment seeks to overcome all the above deficiencies, but in particular pays attention to catering for the varying needs of the software developers. MetaEdit+ is a multi-method, multi-tool platform for both CASE and Computer Aided Method Engineering (CAME). As a CASE tool it establishes a versatile and powerful multi-tool environment which enables flexible creation, maintenance, manipulation, retrieval and representation of design information among multiple developers. As a CAME environment it offers an easy-to-use yet powerful environment for method specification, integration, management and re-use. The paper explains the motivation for developing MetaEdit+, its design goals and philosophy and discusses the functionality of the CAME tools.

https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1007%2F3-540-61292-0_1.pdf

MetaEdit+: A Fully Configurable Multi-User and Multi-Tool CASE and CAME Environment

Language workbenches are tools that provide high-level mechanisms for the implementation of (domain-specific) languages. Language workbenches are an active area of research that also receives many contributions from industry. To compare and discuss existing language workbenches, the annual Language Workbench Challenge was launched in 2011. Each year, participants are challenged to realize a given domain-specific language with their workbenches as a basis for discussion and comparison. In this paper, we describe the state of the art of language workbenches as observed in the previous editions of the Language Workbench Challenge. In particular, we capture the design space of language workbenches in a feature model and show where in this design space the participants of the 2013 Language Workbench Challenge reside. We compare these workbenches based on a DSL for questionnaires that was realized in all workbenches.

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The State of the Art in Language Workbenches. Conclusions from the Language Workbench Challenge

/pdf/evaluating-and-comparing-language-workbenches-2eksl26pmk.pdf

Steven Kelly

Papers

Domain-Specific Modeling: Enabling Full Code Generation

Domain-Specific Modeling

MetaEdit+: A Fully Configurable Multi-User and Multi-Tool CASE and CAME Environment

The State of the Art in Language Workbenches. Conclusions from the Language Workbench Challenge

Evaluating and comparing language workbenches