Techniques for Metamodel Composition

The process of specifying an embedded system involves capturing complex interrelationships between the hardware domain, the software domain, and the engineering domain used to describe the environment in which the system will be embedded. Developers increasingly turn to domain-specific modeling techniques to manage this complexity, through such approaches as Model Integrated Computing and Model Driven Architecture. However, the specification of domain-specific modeling language syntax and semantics remains more of an art than a science. Typically, the syntax of a DSML is captured using a metamodel; however, there are few best-practices for metamodeling and no public collection of reusable metamodel b to address common language specification requirements. There is a need for an advanced, comprehensive language design environment that offers tool support for a wide range of metamodel reuse strategies and the preservation of metamodeling best-practices. We outline existing techniques for the reuse and composition of metamodels, and propose a new metamodel composition technique we call Template Instantiation.