Institute for Software-integrated Systems Title: Formalizing the Specification of Graphical Modeling Languages

Model integrated computing (MIC) is an effective and efficient method for developing, maintaining, and evolving large-scale computer-based systems (CBSs). Systems are synthesized from models created using customized, domain-specific model integrated program synthesis (MIPS) environments. The MultiGraph Architecture (MGA), developed by Vanderbilt University's Institute for Software Integrated Systems, is a toolset for creating such graphical MIPS environments. Until now, these MIPS environments have been hand-crafted specifically for each domain. Because common modeling concepts appear in many, if not all, MGA-based MIPS systems, research suggests it is possible to "model the modeling environment" by creating a metamodel – a model that formally describes a particular domain-specific MIPS environment (DSME). By modeling the syntactic, semantic, and presentation requirements of a DSME, the metamodel can be used to synthesize the DSME itself, enabling design environment evolution in the face of changing domain requirements. Because both the domain-specific applications and the DSME are designed to evolve, efficient and safe large-scale computer-based systems development is possible over the entire lifetime of the CBS. This report presents a method to represent DSME requirements using UML class diagrams and predicate logic constraint language expressions, discusses automatic transformation of metamodel specifications into DSMEs, and includes an example.