Meta-model based generation of domain-specific modeling tools

Abstract

Today software development often depends on the communication between different shareholders with various professional backgrounds. Domain specific languages (DSL) aim to close the semantic gap between these shareholders by providing a common method for communication. When using meta-tooling suites or language workbenches it is quiet easy to create DSLs for small scenarios or even for single use. But with the more frequent use of DSLs the need for domain-specific tooling has also risen.

This dissertation deals with the challenges of creating domain-specific modeling tools using high-level specification languages via code generation. It focuses on three important elements of domain-specific tool generation such as: specification languages, the tool generation process and the generation of domain-specific APIs, for amplifying the development of plug-ins for the generated tool, which are the main contributions of this dissertation.

The first main contribution focuses on the formalization of the specification languages. It is illustrated by detailing the three specification languages of the meta-tooling suite. The second main contribution introduces the product generation process, which is used to create domain-specific modeling tools from the high-level domain specific languages, defined in the first contribution. The approach is illustrated by the [ product generation process]{} (), which defines the necessary steps to produce a standalone modeling tool in the meta-tooling suite. The third main contribution of this dissertation is the generation of a domain-specific API based on the same high-level descriptions used for the product generation. It uses information present at generation time to create specific operations that are useful for transformations on graph-models (such as typed successor/predecessor or containment relationships). Therefore the API generation of any product is generated during the execution of the . The API makes it easy to develop any extensions for the product due to its domain-specific nature and the ability to resemble user actions in the generated editors.