Model-Based DSL Frameworks

Thursday, Oct 26, from 15:30 to 17:00 

More than five years ago, the OMG proposed the Model Driven Architecture (MDA) approach to deal with the separation of platform dependent and independent aspects in information systems. Since then, the initial idea of MDA evolved and Model Driven Engineering (MDE) is being increasingly promoted to handle separation and combination of various kinds of concerns in software or data engineering. MDE is more general than the set of standards and practices recommended by the OMG's MDA proposal. The main idea is to consider models as first class entities. In MDE the concept of model designates not only OMG models but a lot of other artifacts like XML documents, Java programs, RDBMS data, etc. Today we observe another evolutionary step. A convergence between MDE and DSL (Domain Specific Language) engineering is rapidly appearing. The notion of domain is common to these two study areas and they share a lot of common goals and practices. In the same way as MDE is a generalization of MDA, the DSL engineering may be viewed as a generalization of MDE. One of the goals of this paper is to explore the potential of this important evolution of engineering practices. In order to anchor the discussion on practical grounds, we present a set of typical problems that could be solved by classical (object-oriented and others), MDE, or DSL-based techniques. Solutions to these problems will be based on current platforms (EMF, AMMA, GME, etc.). This paper illustrates how powerful model-based frameworks, allowing people to use and build a variety of DSLs, may help to solve complex problems in a more efficient way. This will in turn lead us to suggest a tool-oriented approach that may be considered as another conceptual extension to MDE and DSL engineering.