Embedding Domain-Specific Modelling Languages in Maude Specifications

Extended version accepted in the Systems and Software Engineering Journal.International audienceWe propose an approach for embedding Domain-Specific Modelling Languages (\dsml) into Maude, based on representing models and metamodels as Maude specifications, and on representing operational semantics and model transformations as computable functions/relations between such specifications. This provides us, on the one hand, with abstract definitions of essential concepts of domain-specific modelling languages: model-to-metamodel conformance, operational semantics, and (operational-semantics-preserving) model transformations; and, on the other hand, with equivalent executable definitions for those concepts, which can be directly used in Maude for formal verification purpose

Adding Rule-Based Model Transformation to Modelling Languages in MetaEdit+

MetaEdit+ is a commercial tool by MetaCase for creating domain-specific, syntax-directed visual modelling environments. MetaEdit+ synthesizes such environments from user-provided metamodels and contains a Generator Editor for code/report generation. An API is provided to allow external manipulation of models through SOAP. Currently, the MetaEdit+ tool does not natively support rule-based model-to-model transformation. Such transformations are useful as they allow domain experts to intuitively (using domain-specific notations) model either operational semantics (a simulator) or denotational semantics (through model-to-model transformation onto a model in a known formalism) of a modelling language. We will demonstrate how to add rule-based operational semantics to modelling languages in MetaEdit+. In our approach, transformation rules are visually created in MetaEdit+. The rule editor is synthesized using modified versions of the original language's metamodel. This modification is performed in a structured fashion using a process called RAMification. Both the model and the rules are exported from MetaEdit+ to Python code. This code is combined with Py-T-Core, our library of transformation language primitives, to apply the rules on the model. Our demonstration has a client-server architecture, with the MetaEdit+ visual modelling environment as the client and the transformation engine as the server. After each transformation step, in-place changes to the model are propagated to MetaEdit+ for visualization using the SOAP API. A simple (manufacturing) Production System modelling language is used as an example

Meta-environment and executable meta-language using smalltalk: an experience report

Object-oriented modelling languages such as EMOF are often used to specify domain specific meta-models. However, these modelling languages lack the ability to describe behavior or operational semantics. Several approaches have used a subset of Java mixed with OCL as executable meta-languages. In this experience report we show how we use Smalltalk as an executable meta-language in the context of the Moose reengineering environment. We present how we implemented EMOF and its behavioral aspects. Over the last decade we validated this approach through incrementally building a meta-described reengineering environment. Such an approach bridges the gap between a code-oriented view and a meta-model driven one. It avoids the creation of yet another language and reuses the infrastructure and run-time of the underlying implementation language. It offers an uniform way of letting developers focus on their tasks while at the same time allowing them to meta-describe their domain model. The advantage of our approach is that developers use the same tools and environment they use for their regular tasks. Still the approach is not Smalltalk specific but can be applied to language offering an introspective API such as Ruby, Python, CLOS, Java and C

Automating the transformation-based analysis of visual languages

The final publication is available at Springer via http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s00165-009-0114-yWe present a novel approach for the automatic generation of model-to-model transformations given a description of the operational semantics of the source language in the form of graph transformation rules. The approach is geared to the generation of transformations from Domain-Specific Visual Languages (DSVLs) into semantic domains with an explicit notion of transition, like for example Petri nets. The generated transformation is expressed in the form of operational triple graph grammar rules that transform the static information (initial model) and the dynamics (source rules and their execution control structure). We illustrate these techniques with a DSVL in the domain of production systems, for which we generate a transformation into Petri nets. We also tackle the description of timing aspects in graph transformation rules, and its analysis through their automatic translation into Time Petri netsWork sponsored by the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation, project METEORIC (TIN2008-02081/TIN) and by the Canadian Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council (NSERC)

Evaluating Knowledge Representation and Reasoning Capabilites of Ontology Specification Languages

The interchange of ontologies across the World Wide Web (WWW) and the cooperation among heterogeneous agents placed on it is the main reason for the development of a new set of ontology specification languages, based on new web standards such as XML or RDF. These languages (SHOE, XOL, RDF, OIL, etc) aim to represent the knowledge contained in an ontology in a simple and human-readable way, as well as allow for the interchange of ontologies across the web. In this paper, we establish a common framework to compare the expressiveness of "traditional" ontology languages (Ontolingua, OKBC, OCML, FLogic, LOOM) and "web-based" ontology languages. As a result of this study, we conclude that different needs in KR and reasoning may exist in the building of an ontology-based application, and these needs must be evaluated in order to choose the most suitable ontology language(s)

Continuous Improvement Through Knowledge-Guided Analysis in Experience Feedback

Continuous improvement in industrial processes is increasingly a key element of competitiveness for industrial systems. The management of experience feedback in this framework is designed to build, analyze and facilitate the knowledge sharing among problem solving practitioners of an organization in order to improve processes and products achievement. During Problem Solving Processes, the intellectual investment of experts is often considerable and the opportunities for expert knowledge exploitation are numerous: decision making, problem solving under uncertainty, and expert configuration. In this paper, our contribution relates to the structuring of a cognitive experience feedback framework, which allows a flexible exploitation of expert knowledge during Problem Solving Processes and a reuse such collected experience. To that purpose, the proposed approach uses the general principles of root cause analysis for identifying the root causes of problems or events, the conceptual graphs formalism for the semantic conceptualization of the domain vocabulary and the Transferable Belief Model for the fusion of information from different sources. The underlying formal reasoning mechanisms (logic-based semantics) in conceptual graphs enable intelligent information retrieval for the effective exploitation of lessons learned from past projects. An example will illustrate the application of the proposed approach of experience feedback processes formalization in the transport industry sector

A Calculus for Orchestration of Web Services

Service-oriented computing, an emerging paradigm for distributed computing based on the use of services, is calling for the development of tools and techniques to build safe and trustworthy systems, and to analyse their behaviour. Therefore, many researchers have proposed to use process calculi, a cornerstone of current foundational research on specification and analysis of concurrent, reactive, and distributed systems. In this paper, we follow this approach and introduce CWS, a process calculus expressly designed for specifying and combining service-oriented applications, while modelling their dynamic behaviour. We show that CWS can model all the phases of the life cycle of service-oriented applications, such as publication, discovery, negotiation, orchestration, deployment, reconfiguration and execution. We illustrate the specification style that CWS supports by means of a large case study from the automotive domain and a number of more specific examples drawn from it