Generation of domain-specific language-to-language transformation languages
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Date
2019
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Abstract
The increasing complexity of software systems entailed by the imposed
requirements and involved stakeholders creates new challenges towards software
development and turns it into a complex task.
Nowadays, sophisticated development approaches and tools are needed to handle
this complexity.
Model-Driven Engineering (MDE) provides means to abstract from the
details of a software system during the development phase by using models.
Domain-Specific Modeling (DSM), a branch of MDE, tackles the complexity by
proposing to use modeling languages which are restricted towards the solution
space of the targeted
problem domain. These Domain-Specific Visual Languages (DSVLs) are used
in the DSM
approach to create models in the restricted design space making the generation
of modeled solutions feasible and
providing a basis for the communication between various stakeholders.
Since for each of the targeted domains a DSVL is needed, language workbenches
emerged which support the development of DSVLs. During the
development of a
DSVL the semantics of the language has to be defined and, if the DSVL changes,
existing models created using the DSVL have to be migrated. Furthermore,
models are represented in a specific format hindering the application of, e.g.,
mature verification methods and tools.
To solve these tasks, model transformations are promoted to
transform models into different representations conforming to other DSVL.
This thesis presents a new kind of model transformation languages, which can be
used to handle the arising tasks during the development of
DSVLs. These transformation languages are tailored towards the domain of
"computational model transformations between DSVLs". The presented
transformation
languages are based on graph-transformation approaches and simplify the
specification of computations by utilizing Plotkin's
Strucural Operation Semantics (SOS), and thereby facilitate the definition of
computation steps in a declarative way.
This approach suffers from the
versatility in the scope of DSVLs and thereby requires techniques to reduce the
development costs of the transformation languages for different source and
target languages.
The key to reduce the development costs is the application of the
Domain-specific, Full-generation, Service orientation (DFS) approach for the
domain of model transformation languages. The application of domain-specifc
concept results in graph-based, domain-specific two-level transformation
languages. The essence of those languages is captured in a pattern describing
possible two-level transformation languages.
This pattern is used as the basis for the definition of a
generator for those kind of transformation languages making
full-generation feasible. The
semantics of pattern matching and rewriting rules in the context of graph-based
transformations are defined by the utilization of existing graph-transformation
tools.
Description
Table of contents
Keywords
DSL, Multi-level transformations, Model-to-model transformation, Typed Structural Operational Semantics, Structural Operational Semantics, Abstraction, Structural aggregation, Rule systems, Meta language, Model checking, Graph pattern