90 likes | 205 Views
EMWDA Working Group on Meta-models for Existing Languages. I ssue. Is it useful and/or desirable to define meta-models (potentially MOF-Based) for existing formal languages? For example SDL, MSC or VHDL. Or Ada, Java, C++. P eople Attending. Rasmus Fogh Girish Maskeri Laurie Tratt
E N D
EMWDA Working Group on Meta-models for Existing Languages
Issue • Is it useful and/or desirable to define meta-models (potentially MOF-Based) for existing formal languages? For example SDL, MSC or VHDL. Or Ada, Java, C++.
People Attending • Rasmus Fogh • Girish Maskeri • Laurie Tratt • Salim Bouzitouna • Zhen Ru Dai • Aris Georgalas • Anastasius Gavras • Jan Aagedal
Solution • Is it useful? Yes. • data models or semantically-rich models? • semantics often already externally defined, but sometimes one needs semantics to exchange models
Advantages of the solution • What to do with such instances of such meta-models? • Map to other models • Analysis of models • Simulation • Common representation • Tool integration and reuse • Easier to define the semantics of a new language in a meta-model than in traditional ways • Can get a graphical representation of the language
Disadvantages of the solution • Redo everything done before? • Existing tools, e.g. for Z, are already quite advanced (refinement techniques, model checking) • Textual representations can be useful
To Be Done • Find existing work on this in other communities • STEP/EXPRESS? • System Engineering? • SDL? MSC? (Humboldt University) • TTCN (Fraunhofer FOKUS)
Roadmap for the solution • The other communities should pick up on this... • A methodology for how to take BNF to become a meta-model
Related Issues • Read the book at www.xactium.com on how to do meta-modelling