MegaModeling

From IDMPP

In MegaModeling, also called Global Model Management, we will work on complexity problems encountered in MDE. This complexity is due to the increasing numbers of models used in software modeling. The involved models are complementary, but also heterogeneous by nature and sometimes also pertain to different abstraction level. So, the understanding of the whole system is conditioned by the availability of simplified ways for navigating models and on the understanding of the relations between these models. This major problem has been called “Tower of Models” and presented by R. Milner in [1]. In this presentation, he describes his concept of “Tower of Model” and proposes its use for strategic management and technical knowledge. In this project, we will propose a first implementation of this vision for the technical knowledge representation.

The main objective is to define a family of languages for “modeling in the large” (i.e. managing global modeling resources in the field of MDE-oriented software developments) and also for the metadata associated to these models and the relation between them. With this, it becomes possible to specify that two languages are similar and that another language can be viewed as an implementation of the first one. These types of information can be used for documentation and operational purposes. For example, it can be used to know if there is an ATL transformation which realizes the conversions between the two languages. This ATL transformation will be linked to the ATL metamodel and the metamodels of the two other languages.

Practically, we will develop languages allowing building new models by combining existing models like in UNIX, which proposes different shell languages to build complex commands from other ones. This approach will be called megamodeling in reference to the megaprograming work in the 80’s.

References

[1] Milner, R. Strategic foresight, technical insight Symposiumen l'honneur de Gille Kahn, Paris, Janvier 2007, link