Concern-oriented language development (COLD): Fostering reuse in language engineering

Abstract

a b s t r a c t Domain-Specific Languages (DSLs) bridge the gap between the problem space, in which stakeholders work, and the solution space, i.e., the concrete artifacts defining the target system. They are usually small and intuitive languages whose concepts and expressiveness fit a particular domain. DSLs recently found their application in an increasingly broad range of domains, e.g., cyber-physical systems, computational sciences and high performance computing. Despite recent advances, the development of DSLs is error-prone and requires substantial engineering efforts. Techniques to reuse from one DSL to another and to support customization to meet new requirements are thus particularly welcomed. Over the last decade, the Software Language Engineering (SLE) community has proposed various reuse techniques. However, all these techniques remain disparate and complicate the development of real-world DSLs involving different reuse scenarios.In this paper, we introduce the Concern-Oriented Language Development (COLD) approach, a new language development model that promotes modularity and reusability of language concerns . A language concern is a reusable piece of language that consists of usual language artifacts (e.g., abstract syntax, concrete syntax, semantics) and exhibits three specific interfaces that support (1) variability management, (2) customization to a specific context, and (3) proper usage of the reused artifact. The approach is supported by a conceptual model which introduces the required concepts to implement COLD. We also present * Corresponding author. J.-M. Jézéquel et al. / Computer Languages, Systems & Structures 54 (2018) [139][140][141][142][143][144][145][146][147][148][149][150][151][152][153][154][155] concrete examples of some language concerns and the current state of their realization with metamodel-based and grammar-based language workbenches. We expect this work to provide insights into how to foster reuse in language specification and implementation, and how to support it in language workbenches.

Metamodel clone detection with SAMOS

“…The goal of our research is to detect metamodel clones. Metamodel clones might exist due to a wide range of reasons including copy-paste or clone-and-own approaches in model-driven development [7], lack of abstraction mechanisms in metamodels for language design [15], or difficulty in reuse for DSLs in general [16]. Maintenance, which has been identified by Kosar et al [17] as one of the major overlooked areas in DSL research, is hampered by the presence of clones and can benefit from clone detection [18].…”

Modular language composition for the masses

“…A language concern interface should expose the information needed to (i) use and (ii) compose a concern [7]. Using a language first involves producing a conforming model.…”

“…From the introduction, motivating example, and the notion of language concern interface, we derive a list of five requirements that must be addressed for non-intrusive and modular language development. Following the terminology introduced for concern-oriented language development [7], we refer to languages as language concerns, regardless of whether they expose an explicit required interface or not.…”

“…Méndez-Acuña et al [21] identify three approaches to language variability management [3,18,20]. The Concern-Oriented Language Development (COLD) approach [7] proposes the notion of language concern as the unit of software language reuse. By providing an explicit and modular language interface, our approach can contribute to the improvement of language families and feature-oriented programming solutions.…”

“…The promise of modular language development is to liberate language designers from the burden of developing every new language from scratch and enable them to reuse, assemble, and customize existing language concerns to ease the definition of new ones [7]. Recent approaches in the area of modular language development are plentiful.…”