Jendrik Johannes

Derivation and Refinement of Textual Syntax for Models

Textual Syntax (TS) as a form of model representation has made its way to the Model-Driven Software Development community and is considered a viable alternative to graphical representations. To support the design and implementation of text editing facilities many concrete syntax and model mapping tools have emerged. Despite the maturity of these tools, users still spend considerable effort to specify syntaxes and generate editors even for simple metamodels. To reduce this effort, we propose to refine a specification that is automatically derived from a given metamodel. We argue that defaults in a customisable setting enable developers to quickly realise text-based editors for models. In particular in settings where metamodels evolve, such a procedure is beneficial. To evaluate this idea we present EMFText [1], an EMF/Eclipse integrated tool for agile Textual Syntax (TS) development. We show how default syntax can easily be tailored and refined to obtain a custom text editor for EMF models and demonstrate our approach by two examples.

Closing the gap between modelling and java

Model-Driven Software Development is based on standardised models that are refined, transformed and eventually translated into executable code using code generators. However, creating plain text from well-structured models creates a gap that implies several drawbacks: Developers cannot continue to use their model-based tool machinery, relations between model elements and code fragments are hard to track and there is no easy way to rebuild models from their respective code. This paper presents an approach to bridge this gap for the Java programming language. It defines a full metamodel and text syntax specification for Java, from which a parser and a printer are generated. Through this, Java code can be handled like any other model. The implementation is validated with large test sets, example applications are shown, and future directions of research are discussed.

On Language-Independent Model Modularisation

As model-driven software development covers additional parts of the development process, the complexity of software models increases as well. At the same time, however, many modelling languages do not provide adequate support for modularising models. For this reason, there has been an increasing interest in the topic of model modularisation, often under the heading of aspect-oriented modelling (AOM). The approaches range from techniques that closely mimic concepts from aspect-oriented programming (AOP), such as AspectJ, to very powerful composition techniques for specific types of models--for example, state machines. We believe that AOM is more than just copying the concepts of AOP at the modelling level and should rightly include a large number of other model-composition techniques. However, developing model composition techniques and tooling is costly. To minimise the effort required, this paper presents a generic technique for model composition. The technique is based on invasive software composition and our Reuseware tooling and can be used with arbitrary modelling languages. The basic technique itself is language independent, but it can be adapted to construct language- and purpose-specific composition techniques for specific modelling languages and situations. Hence, it can be used both as a tool for developing specific model-modularisation techniques and as an instrument of research for studying basic properties and concepts of model modularisation. The paper gives a detailed description of our approach and evaluates it using a number of examples.

Putting Performance Engineering into Model-Driven Engineering: Model-Driven Performance Engineering

Late identification of performance problems can lead to significant additional development costs. Hence, it is necessary to address performance in several development phases by performing a performance engineering process. We show that Model-Driven Engineering (MDE) specifics can be utilised for performance engineering. Therefore, we propose a process combining MDE and performance engineering called Model-Driven Performance Engineering (MDPE). Additionally we present our first experiences in application of MDPE concepts.

Extending grammars and metamodels for reuse: the Reuseware approach

The trend toward domain-specific languages leads to an ever-growing plethora of highly specialized languages. Developers of such languages focus on their specific domains rather than on technical challenges of language design. Generic features of languages are rarely included in special-purpose languages. One very important feature is the ability to formulate partial programs in separate encapsulated entities, which can be composed into complete programs in a well-defined manner. This paper presents a language-independent approach for adding useful constructs for defining components. We discuss the underlying concepts and describe a composition environment and tool supporting these ideas ‐ the Reuseware Composition Framework. To evaluate our approach we enrich the (Semantic) Web query language Xcerpt with an additional useful reuse concept—modules.

Model-Based Language Engineering with EMFText

Model-based techniques are in wide-spread use for the design and implementation of domain specific languages (DSLs) and their tooling. The Eclipse Modeling Framework (EMF) is a frequently used environment for model-based language engineering. With its underlying modelling language Ecore, its XML serialisation support and its versatile extensibility it provides a solid grounding for many task-specific language development tools. In this tutorial, we give an introduction to model-based language engineering using EMFText, which allows users to develop powerful textual editors for Ecore-based DSLs that are tightly integrated with the EMF.

Systematic Usage of Embedded Modelling Languages in Automated Model Transformation Chains

Annotation of programs using embedded Domain-Specific Languages (embedded DSLs), such as the program annotation facility for the Java programming language, is a well-known practice in computer science. In this paper we argue for and propose a specialized approach for the usage of embedded Domain-Specific Modelling Languages (embedded DSMLs) in Model-Driven Engineering (MDE) processes that in particular supports automated many-step model transformation chains. It can happen that information defined at some point, using an embedded DSML, is not required in the next immediate transformation step, but in a later one. We propose a new approach of model annotation enabling flexible many-step transformation chains. The approach utilizes a combination of embedded DSMLs, trace models and a megamodel. We demonstrate our approach based on an example MDE process and an industrial case study.

DropsBox: the Dresden Open Software Toolbox

The Dresden Open Software Toolbox (DropsBox) is a software modelling toolbox consisting of a set of open source tools developed by the Software Technology Group at TU Dresden. The DropsBox is built on top of the Eclipse Platform and the Eclipse Modeling Framework. The DropsBox contributes to the development and application of domain-specific language changes (DSLs) in model-driven software development. It can be customised by tool and language developers to support various activities of a DSL’s life cycle ranging from language design to language application and evolution. In this paper, we provide an overview of the DSL life cycle, the DropsBox tools, and their interaction on a common example. Furthermore, we discuss our experiences in developing and integrating tools for DropsBox in an academic environment.

Generating safe template languages

Template languages are widely used within generative programming, because they provide intuitive means to generate software artefacts expressed in a specific object language. However, most template languages perform template instantiation on the level of string literals, which allows neither syntax checks nor semantics analysis. To make sure that generated artefacts always conform to the object language, we propose to perform static analysis at template design time. In addition, the increasing popularity of domainspecific languages (DSLs) demands an approach that allows to reuse both the concepts of template languages and the corresponding tools. In this paper we address the issues mentioned above by presenting how existing languages can be automatically extended with generic template concepts (e.g., placeholders, loops, conditions) to obtain safe template languages. These languages provide means for syntax checking and static semantic analysis w.r.t. the object language at template design time. We discuss the prerequisites for this extension, analyse the types of correctness properties that can be assured at template design time, and exemplify the key benefits of this approach on a textual DSL and Java.

Integrating OCL and textual modelling languages

In the past years, many OCL tools achieved a transition of OCL from a language meant to constrain UML models to a universal constraint language applied to various modelling and metamodelling languages. However, OCL users still experience a discrepancy between the now highly extensible parsing and evaluation backend of OCL tools and the lack of appropriate frontend tooling like advanced OCL editors that adapt to the different application scenarios. We argue that this has to be addressed both at a technical and methodological level. Therefore, this paper provides an overview of the technical foundations to provide an integrated OCL tooling frontend and backend for arbitrary textual modelling languages and contributes a stepwise process for such an integration. We distinguish two kinds of integration: external definition of OCL constraints and embedded definition of OCL constraints. Due to the textual notation of OCL the second kind provides particularly deep integration with textual modelling languages. We apply our approach in two case studies and discuss the benefits and limitations of the approach in general and both integration kinds in particular.