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

Applied metamodelling : a foundation for language driven development

The Third Edition of Applied Metamodelling represents a small increment since the Second Edition was produced in 2008. The book continues to be referenced in schol- arly articles with 212 citations on Google Scholar including nearly 150 since 2008. The open-source release of the accompanying technologies XMF and XMF-Mosaic did not generate the same level of interest, partly due to a lack of exposure and associated tuto- rial materials. Recently, interest in the field of multi-level modelling has increased and has led to publications and a Dagstuhl Seminar based on the ideas of meta-languages and tool-modelling. An overview of the historical development of XMF, the ideas in this book, and the the birth and death of an associated startup company has been published in 2012 as part of the 10th anniversary edition of the the Journal of Software and Systems Modeling. A project based on the foundations developed in this book and the tooling, now rebranded XModeler, is underway and the aim is to advance the field of multi-level language-based system engineering

Integrating behavioural design into the virtual environment development process

A number of specifications formalisms have been developed (or applied) to support the abstract design of the behavioural component of the virtual environment interface. These formalisms subscribe to the philosophy that virtual environments should be viewed as hybrid systems which combine discrete and continuous behaviour. A significant deficiency in designing behaviour in this way is that the designs cannot be directly executed and explored in the same manner as an implementation. This limitation makes it di#cult for a designer to evaluate the suitability of designs. The thesis presents the Marigold toolset which supports two approaches to evaluating behaviour described using the Flownet hybrid formalism

A Pattern Based Approach to Defining the Dynamic Infrastructure of UML 2.0

The 2U Consortium has recently submitted a proposal for the definition of the UML 2.0 infrastructure. This uses an innovative technique of rapidly “stamping out” the definition using a small number of patterns commonly found in software architecture. The patterns, their instantiation, and any further language details are described using precise class diagrams and OCL, this enables the definition to be easily understood. The main focus of the 2U approach is on the static part of the definition. A further concern when modelling software, using languages such as the UML, is describing the dynamic behaviour of the system over time. The contribution of this paper is to provide a template that can be used to “stamp out” the dynamic part of the UML 2.0 infrastructure. We argue for the suitability of the dynamic template because it makes little commitment to concrete abstractions and can, therefore, be used to support a broad spectrum of behavioural languages

Defining OCL expressions using templates.

OCL expressions are an essential part of UML. The current versions of OCL fail to have a meta-model which means that the integration of OCL with the UML meta-model cannot be formally defined [1]. This can result in ambiguous descriptions of systems which may compromise designs. The need to redesign the OCL has been addressed by a number of proposals submitted to the OMG. In this paper we demonstrate how a definition for OCL can be stamped out from a small number of templates. Such an approach enables a high level of reuse and an increased confidence that the definition is correct. This work forms part of the 2U consortium’s efforts for the definition of UML 2.0