Metamodels: definitions of structures or ontological commitments?

The concept of metamodel is central in Model Driven Engineering (MDE). It is used to define the conceptual foundation of modeling languages. There exist specialized languages for specifying metamodels known as metalanguages. The most popular of them are object-oriented and support defining structures of the metamodels without considering the semantical underpinnings of the structures. In this paper we study the nature of metamodels from philosophical perspective. We claim that a metamodel is something more than an abstract syntax definition: it is an ontological commitment that guides the modeler in his perception about the real world phenomenon. Therefore, metalanguages should derive their foundation from the study of Ontology. We employ an ontological theory based on the Four-category ontology and the principles of metaphysical realism. We propose a metalanguage called OGML (Ontology Grounded Metalanguage) built upon the basic concepts of this ontology

Improving the OCL Semantics Definition by Applying Dynamic Meta Modeling and Design Patterns

OCL is a standard specification language, which will probably be supported by most software modeling tools in the near future. Hence, it is important for OCL to have a solid formal foundation, for its syntax and its semantic definition. Currently, OCL is being formalized by metamodels expressed in MOF, complemented by well formedness rules written in the own OCL. This recursive definition not only brings about formal problems, but also puts obstacles in language understanding. On the other hand, the OCL semantics metamodel presents quality weaknesses due to the fact that certain object-oriented design rules (patterns) were not obeyed in their construction. The aim of the proposal presented in this article is to improve the definition for the OCL semantics metamodel by applying GoF patterns and the dynamic metamodeling technique. Such proposal avoids circularity in OCL definition and increases its extensibility, legibility and accuracy

A Taxonomy of Metamodel Hierarchies

In the context of software engineering and model-driven development in particular, metamodeling gains more and more importance. So far, no classifying study of theoretical metamodeling concepts and hierarchy design options has been conducted in order to establish a comprehensive set of interrelated design variables, i.e. a coherent design space. A well-designed metamodeling hierarchy is essential to avoid problems not easily noticeable, like ambiguous classification and the replication of concepts. This study aims at exploring the theoretical foundation and providing a taxonomy or a design space for constructing tailor-made metamodel hierarchies for specific problems areas and domains

Generating collaborative systems for digital libraries: A model-driven approach

This is an open access article shared under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Licence (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/). Copyright @ 2010 The Authors.The design and development of a digital library involves different stakeholders, such as: information architects, librarians, and domain experts, who need to agree on a common language to describe, discuss, and negotiate the services the library has to offer. To this end, high-level, language-neutral models have to be devised. Metamodeling techniques favor the definition of domainspecific visual languages through which stakeholders can share their views and directly manipulate representations of the domain entities. This paper describes CRADLE (Cooperative-Relational Approach to Digital Library Environments), a metamodel-based framework and visual language for the definition of notions and services related to the development of digital libraries. A collection of tools allows the automatic generation of several services, defined with the CRADLE visual language, and of the graphical user interfaces providing access to them for the final user. The effectiveness of the approach is illustrated by presenting digital libraries generated with CRADLE, while the CRADLE environment has been evaluated by using the cognitive dimensions framework

Ontological Multilevel Modeling Language

This paper presents ontological multilevel modeling language O2ML, aimed at using with metadata driven information systems. The first part of this paper briefly surveys existing modeling languages and approaches, while the last part proposes a new language to combine their benefits

Model Continuity in Discrete Event Simulation: A Framework for Model-Driven Development of Simulation Models.

Most of the well known modeling and simulation methodologies state the importance of conceptual modeling in simulation studies and they suggest the use of conceptual models during the simulation model development process. However, only a limited number of methodologies refers to howto move from a conceptual model to an executable simulation model. Besides, existing modeling and simulation methodologies do not typically provide a formal method for model transformations between the models in different stages of the development process. Hence, in the current M&S practice, model continuity is usually not fulfilled. In this article, a model driven development framework for modeling and simulation is in order to bridge the gap between different stages of a simulation study and to obtain model continuity. The applicability of the framework is illustrated with a prototype modeling environment and a case study in the discrete event simulation domain