Building a Flexible Software Factory Using Partial Domain Specific Models

This paper describes some experiences in building a software factory by defining multiple small domain specific languages (DSLs) and having multiple small models per DSL. This is in high contrast with traditional approaches using monolithic models, e.g. written in UML. In our approach, models behave like source code to a large extend, leading to an easy way to manage the model(s) of large systems

Full Paper: Rapid Production of Enterprise Applications in a Low-Code Environment: Comparing the Itlingo-ASL and Powerapps Metamodels

Low-code development platforms allow to reduce the time and resources required for developing business applications; thus, many companies are increasingly adopting them. However, they often use proprietary languages making it challenging to interoperate with other systems or switch to different low-code platforms, resulting in vendor lock-in situations. This research proposes to combine a model-driven approach based on rigorous requirements specifications defined in the ITLingo-ASL language with the Microsoft PowerApps technology to generate quasi-complete enterprise applications semi- automatically. This research analyses the ITLingo-ASL and Microsoft PowerApps metamodels, mainly focusing on concepts related to DataEntities, UI elements, Actors and Use cases to find similarities indicating that transforming one model is possible. It also pinpoints differences so that the ITLingo-ASL language can be extended to support software enterprise application specifications better

Ontologies in domain specific languages : a systematic literature review

The systematic literature review conducted in this paper explores the current techniques employed to leverage the development of DSLs using ontologies. Similarities and differences between ontologies and DSLs, techniques to combine DSLs with ontologies, the rationale of these techniques and challenges in the DSL approaches addressed by the used techniques have been investigated. Details about these topics have been provided for each relevant research paper that we were able to investigate in the limited amount of time of one month. At the same time, a synthesis describing the main trends in all the topics mentioned above has been done

Beyond annotations: a proposal for extensible java (XJ).

The XMF system is based on a bespoke language that includes some features that are key to Language Oriented Programming: grammars; syntax classes; parsers; quasi-quotes. This paper discusses various technologies and approaches for LOP and concludes that standardization is one of the key features that will bring LOP and Domain Specific Languages to the mainstream. The paper proposes an extension to Java that incorporates the key LOP and DSL features of XMF. The essential Java extensions are discussed and the paper concludes with a couple of examples

Beyond annotations: a proposal for extensible java (XJ).

The XMF system is based on a bespoke language that includes some features that are key to Language Oriented Programming: grammars; syntax classes; parsers; quasi-quotes. This paper discusses various technologies and approaches for LOP and concludes that standardization is one of the key features that will bring LOP and Domain Specific Languages to the mainstream. The paper proposes an extension to Java that incorporates the key LOP and DSL features of XMF. The essential Java extensions are discussed and the paper concludes with a couple of examples

Mod4J: A Qualitative Case Study of Model-Driven Software Development

Model-driven software development (MDSD) has been on the rise over the past few years and is becoming more and more mature. However, evaluation in real-life industrial context is still scarce. In this paper, we present a case-study evaluating the applicability of a state-of-the-art MDSD tool, Mod4J, a suite of domain specific languages (DSLs) for developing administrative enterprise applications. Mod4J was used to partially rebuild an industrially representative application. This implementation was then compared to a base implementation based on elicited success criteria. Our evaluation leads to a number of recommendations to improve Mod4J. We conclude that having extension points for hand-written code is a good feature for a model driven software development environment