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Thu, 31 May 2018 11:46

Eclipse User

Dear All,

I would like to get some guidance in building a model transformation tool engine that allows the user to transform automatically a model in a formalism "a" to another formalism "b". For example: Petri net Model ----> Cellular Automata.

Can anyone be of help please?

Thank you in advance.

Re: MDA [message #1789910 is a reply to message #1789900]

Thu, 31 May 2018 13:27

Eclipse User

From six messages ago....

Hi

Within Eclipse you can choose from the following established M2Ms
- QVTo - textual, OMG standard, semi-declarative, primarily imperative
- ATL - textual, semi-imperative, primarily declarative
- Henshin - graphical, semi-imperative, primarily declarative
Your choice. Follow the tutorials for whatever takes your fancy. You can look at the project pages/newsgroups to see activity/problems/support.

Alternatively using the underlying EMF support you can code whatever you like in a Java-based language.

Regards

Ed Willink

Re: MDA [message #1789976 is a reply to message #1789910]

Fri, 01 June 2018 08:36

Eclipse User

Ok thanks Ed,

I will get back to you next time. However, if you have some links for useful tutorials do not hesitate to indicate the links.

Sincerely,
ID

Re: MDA [message #1789985 is a reply to message #1789976]

Fri, 01 June 2018 10:51

Eclipse User

Hi

I just noticed that I missed out Epsilon, which is not part of the Eclipse SimRel but is Eclipse-hosted, stable with a useful user base. For Model transformation, it is potentially declarative, but tends to degenerate to imperative. It has the unique characteristic of providing a family of related languages better suited to dedicated applications such as Validation or Merging.

Regards

Ed Willink

Re: MDA [message #1789987 is a reply to message #1789985]

Fri, 01 June 2018 11:40

Eclipse User

hi Ed,

I went through some materials on model transformation just now and saw something about Epsilon as well. However, I would like to pose my problem again as the more I read the more I am getting confused.

Have you ever heard about ATOM 3 , a tool for Multi-formalism and Meta-modelling?

In fact my project is to develop something similar. So far, I studied ATL and today I have a brief reading on Henshin but they all seem not to answer my question.

My challenge is to develop a tool (a modelling environment) that helps building a source model in a certain formalism then choose a destination model in another formalism to transform the former into it and the transformation has to be done automatically. Such tool after built can be downloaded by users and use used but for now I just want to build a small example to support the idea of a paper I am writing.

Thank you for your assistance. I am new in MDA.

Re: MDA [message #1789990 is a reply to message #1789987]

Fri, 01 June 2018 13:11

Eclipse User

Hi

"formalism" implies something grand and complicated but you want a simple example.

In practice you need to use one of the many Ecore/UML editors to provide the metamodels of your source and target 'formalism's, unless they already exist. Then you use an M2M tool to map concepts, For a small example whatever has the most pleasing tutorial example may be the best choice. For serious work you want to spend sometime evaluating. And if it is long term professional work you need to satisfy yourself that the chosen tool has adequate quality and support remembering that the big advantage of Open Source is that in extremis you can maintain it yourself.

Most tools provide an example mapping from a simplified "UML" formalism to a simplified "RDBMS" formalism. You may use this to contrast tools, but beware that each example has different coverage of the (multiple) inheritance/datatype/nested type/... optional complexities.

Regards

Ed Willink

Re: MDA [message #1792287 is a reply to message #1789990]

Sat, 14 July 2018 07:28

Eclipse User

Ok thank you. I thought I could build one to support my idea because what I found so far is only base on tools such ATL, QVT, etc. My assignment is to have a modelling environment that will allow drawing a "Model A" then generates a "Model B" graphically.

Sincerely,
ID

Re: MDA [message #1792288 is a reply to message #1792287]

Sat, 14 July 2018 07:40

Eclipse User

Hi

You may most certainly build a modeling environment to suit your exact specification, but I would caution that many similar attempts have failed since either you have a huge task of redeveloping everything or an awkward task of re-integrating whenever the tools you re-use evolve. Much better to understand what an environment like Eclipse offers, then identify what you really need to improve and work with relevant projects to make those improvements. The foregoing is remarkably similar to the mission of the PolarSys group.

Regards

Ed Willink

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