On the unification power of models

Abstract

In November 2000, the OMG made public the MDA TM initiative, a particular variant of a new global trend called MDE (Model Driven Engineering). The basic ideas of MDA are germane to many other approaches such as generative programming, domain specific languages, model-integrated computing, generic model management, software factories, etc.

Object-focused environments revisited

“…A model is an abstraction, in the sense that it cannot represent all aspects of the real world [39]. We discuss further the differences and similarities of modeling and programming practices in Chapter 3.…”

“…This process can be termed programming, and the outcome is a machineexecutable computer model [39]. Programming is a highly complex activity involving several steps.…”

A Solution for Concurrent Versioning of Metamodels and Models.

“…MDE promotes models as first class citizens exploited to generate code, perform analysis of system's properties, and so forth [Bez05]. Therefore, the need of model versioning support arises as soon as an MDE approach is adopted.…”

“…In this respect, Domain-Specific Languages can be exploited to provide an abstraction level tailored to the domain experts by providing them with concepts closer to their expertise and to improve automation of derived artefacts [Bez05,KT08]. Due to their specificness, modelling languages are typically designed and subsequently maintained in an incremental manner; in this way, their expressiveness can be manipulated to add, fix, and/or refine available concepts [Fav05].…”

“…In this respect, Model-Driven Engineering (MDE) has been proposed to facilitate the system development by creating, maintaining, and manipulating models, i.e., abstractions of a real phenomenon. These abstractions reduce the complexity of the problem by allowing developers to focus on the aspects that most matter in the design of the system, and permitting to reason about the scenario in terms of domain-specific concepts [Bez05]. As the model is an abstraction of the system in the reality, rules and constraints for building the model have to be properly stated through a corresponding language definition: a metamodel describes the set of available concepts and well-formedness rules a model must conform to 1 .…”