On Language-Independent Model Modularisation

Abstract

Abstract. 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 aspectoriented 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 modelcomposition techniques. Developing model composition techniques and tooling is costly, however. 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.

Achieving Practical Genericity in Model Weaving through Extensibility

“…The Reuseware Composition Framework [9] provides a generic mechanism for composing modelling languages. In order to compose languages they either have to be manually extended so that they represent a component description language or a non-invasive extension has to be provided using OCL-expressions.…”

Generic Meta-modelling with Concepts, Templates and Mixin Layers

“…Another set of related research are the (meta-)model modularization approaches, like Reuseware [6]. In that approach, the authors develop a languageindependent composition language, which can be used to define composition interfaces for models, in an intrusive way.…”

“…While Reuseware solves the modularization of models, our templates provide in addition an instantiation mechanism, suitable to construct patterns and component libraries. In addition [6] does not consider behaviours and lacks abstraction mechanisms like concepts.…”

Adding Abstraction and Reuse to a Network Modelling Tool Using the Reuseware Composition Framework

“…Reuseware is founded on Invasive Software Composition [3] and extensions of it [4,5]. It is based on the Eclipse Modeling Framework (EMF) [6] and integrates into the Eclipse platform.…”

“…The core of the network modelling DSM environment is a domain-specific language (DSL) based on the Common Information Model (CIM) [7] that is a Distributed Management Task Force (DMTF) 4 standard for systems, networks, applications and service definition. The graphical editor of the DSL, which was the main part of the DSM environment as presented in [1], is directly based on an Ecore 5 metamodel that represents a large part of the CIM standard.…”