Kevoree Modeling Framework (KMF): Efficient modeling techniques for runtime use

The creation of Domain Specific Languages(DSL) counts as one of the main goals in the field of Model-Driven Software Engineering (MDSE). The main purpose of these DSLs is to facilitate the manipulation of domain specific concepts, by providing developers with specific tools for their domain of expertise. A natural approach to create DSLs is to reuse existing modeling standards and tools. In this area, the Eclipse Modeling Framework (EMF) has rapidly become the defacto standard in the MDSE for building Domain Specific Languages (DSL) and tools based on generative techniques. However, the use of EMF generated tools in domains like Internet of Things (IoT), Cloud Computing or Models@Runtime reaches several limitations. In this paper, we identify several properties the generated tools must comply with to be usable in other domains than desktop-based software systems. We then challenge EMF on these properties and describe our approach to overcome the limitations. Our approach, implemented in the Kevoree Modeling Framework (KMF), is finally evaluated according to the identified properties and compared to EMF.Comment: ISBN 978-2-87971-131-7; N° TR-SnT-2014-11 (2014

3D Character Modeling in Virtual Reality

The paper presents a virtual reality modeling system based on interactive web technologies. The system's goal is to provide a user-friendly virtual environment for the development of 3D characters with an articulated structure. The interface allows the modeling of both the character's joint structure (the hierarchy) and its segment geometry (the skin). The novelty of the system consists of (1) the combination of web technologies used (VRML, Java and EAI) which provides the possibility of online modeling, (2) rules and constraints based operations and thus interface elements, (3) vertices and sets of vertices used as graphics primitives and (4) the possibility to handle and extend hierarchies based on the H-anim structure elements

Atomic: an open-source software platform for multi-level corpus annotation

This paper presents Atomic, an open-source platform-independent desktop application for multi-level corpus annotation. Atomic aims at providing the linguistic community with a user-friendly annotation tool and sustainable platform through its focus on extensibility, a generic data model, and compatibility with existing linguistic formats. It is implemented on top of the Eclipse Rich Client Platform, a pluggable Java-based framework for creating client applications. Atomic - as a set of plug-ins for this framework - integrates with the platform and allows other researchers to develop and integrate further extensions to the software as needed. The generic graph-based meta model Salt serves as Atomic’s domain model and allows for unlimited annotation levels and types. Salt is also used as an intermediate model in the Pepper framework for conversion of linguistic data, which is fully integrated into Atomic, making the latter compatible with a wide range of linguistic formats. Atomic provides tools for both less experienced and expert annotators: graphical, mouse-driven editors and a command-line data manipulation language for rapid annotation

Arcadia, a software development environment research project

The research objectives of the Arcadia project are two-fold: discovery and development of environment architecture principles and creation of novel software development tools, particularly powerful analysis tools, which will function within an environment built upon these architectural principles.Work in the architecture area is concerned with providing the framework to support integration while also supporting the often conflicting goal of extensibility. Thus, this area of research is directed toward achieving external integration by providing a consistent, uniform user interface, while still admitting customization and addition of new tools and interface functions. In an effort to also attain internal integration, research is aimed at developing mechanisms for structuring and managing the tools and data objects that populate a software development environment, while facilitating the insertion of new kinds of tools and new classes of objects.The unifying theme of work in the tools area is support for effective analysis at every stage of a software development project. Research is directed toward tools suitable for analyzing pre-implementation descriptions of software, software itself, and towards the production of testing and debugging tools. In many cases, these tools are specifically tailored for applicability to concurrent, distributed, or real-time software systems.The initial focus of Arcadia research is on creating a prototype environment, embodying the architectural principles, which supports Ada1 software development. This prototype environment is itself being developed in Ada.Arcadia is being developed by a consortium of researchers from the University of California at Irvine, the University of Colorado at Boulder, the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, TRW, Incremental Systems Corporation, and The Aerospace Corporation. This paper delineates the research objectives and describes the approaches being taken, the organization of the research endeavor, and current status of the work