COPE: Coupled Evolution of Metamodels and Models for the Eclipse Modeling Framework

In consequence of changing requirements and technological progress, metamodels are subject to change. Manually migrating models to a new version of their corresponding metamodel is costly, tedious and error-prone. The coupled evolution of a metamodel and its models is a sequence of metamodel changes and their corresponding model migrations. These coupled changes are either metamodelspecific or metamodel-independent. Metamodel-independent changes can be reused to evolve different metamodels and their models, thus reducing migration effort. However, tool support is necessary in order to exploit these reuse opportunities. We propose a language based on the Eclipse Modeling Framework that allows for decomposition of a migration into manageable, modular coupled changes. It provides a reuse mechanism for metamodel-independent changes, but is at the same time expressive enough to cater for complex, metamodel-specific changes.