Composing Executable Domain-Specific Modelling Languages – A Graph-Transformation Based Approach

Abstract

Domain-specific modelling languages (DSMLs) are “little” languages that are developed for a particular domain of interest and allow capturing descriptions of problems and systems in terminology close to that domain. So-called executable DSMLs (xDSMLs) come with a high-level specification of their semantics, often as an operational semantics, so that models expressed in the xDSML can be executed directly. Graph transformations are one mechanism that can be used to capture such semantics. A challenge with xDSMLs is that a new such language needs to be developed for every new domain, making the approach potentially costly. If we were able to better reuse existing xDSMLs, we could bring the cost of language development down. One area where this is particularly interesting is in the specification and analysis of non-functional properties of systems (eg, performance properties). In this talk, I will show how such properties can be modularised into their own xDSML and how these language modules can be woven into a given base xDSML via the amalgamation of graph transformation systems. I will give an overview of the concepts and some interesting properties, and will then show GTSMorpher, a tool implementing these ideas in the Eclipse ecosystem.

Steffen Zschaler

Reader in Computer Science

Steffen Zschaler is a Reader in Software Engineering and Deputy Head of Department (Education) at the Department of Informatics at King’s College London, and a Visiting Scientist at the Francis Crick Institute. He is a member of the Software Systems (SSY) group. He also directs MDENet: the expert network for model-driven engineering. His research focuses on model-driven engineering, in particular on formal foundations for modularity of models and (executable) domain-specific modelling languages, using graph-transformations to enable evolutionary search over models to solve multi-objective model optimisation problems, and on applications of model-driven engineering, including in non-technical domains.