Metamodeling - Rapid Design and Evolution of Domain-Specific Modeling Environments

Model integrated computing (MIC) is gaining increased attention as an effective and efficient method for developing, maintaining, and evolving large-scale, domain-specific software applications for computer-based systems. MIC is a model-based approach to software development, allowing the synthesis of application programs from models created using customized, domain-specific model integrated program synthesis (MIPS) environments. Until now, these MIPS environments have been handcrafted. Analysis has shown that it is possible to “model the modeling environment” by creating a metamodel that specifies both the syntactic and semantic behavior of the desired domain-specific MIPS environment (DSME). Such a metamodel could then be used to synthesize the DSME itself, allowing the entire design environment to safely and efficiently evolve in the face of changing domain requirements. This paper discusses the use of the Unified Modeling Language and the Object Constraint Language to specify such metamodels, and describes a method for incorporating these metamodels into the MultiGraph Architecture, a MIPS creation toolset.