Generation of domain-specific language-to-language transformation languages
Creators: name: Kopetzki, Dawid
Publisher: name: Technische Universität Dortmund
Year: 2019
Subjects: subject: DSL
subject: Multi-level transformations
subject: Model-to-model transformation
subject: Typed Structural Operational Semantics
subject: Structural Operational Semantics
subject: Abstraction
subject: Structural aggregation
subject: Rule systems
subject: Meta language
subject: Model checking
subject: Graph pattern
subject: 004
subject: Domänenspezifische Programmiersprache
subject: Modelltransformation
subject: Abstraktion
subject: Spezifikationssprache
subject: Model Checking

description: The increasing complexity of software systems entailed by the imposed requirements and involved stakeholders creates new challenges towards software development and turns it into a complex task. Nowadays, sophisticated development approaches and tools are needed to handle this complexity. Model-Driven Engineering (MDE) provides means to abstract from the details of a software system during the development phase by using models. Domain-Specific Modeling (DSM), a branch of MDE, tackles the complexity by proposing to use modeling languages which are restricted towards the solution space of the targeted problem domain. These Domain-Specific Visual Languages (DSVLs) are used in the DSM approach to create models in the restricted design space making the generation of modeled solutions feasible and providing a basis for the communication between various stakeholders. Since for each of the targeted domains a DSVL is needed, language workbenches emerged which support the development of DSVLs. During the development of a DSVL the semantics of the language has to be defined and, if the DSVL changes, existing models created using the DSVL have to be migrated. Furthermore, models are represented in a specific format hindering the application of, e.g., mature verification methods and tools. To solve these tasks, model transformations are promoted to transform models into different representations conforming to other DSVL. This thesis presents a new kind of model transformation languages, which can be used to handle the arising tasks during the development of DSVLs. These transformation languages are tailored towards the domain of "computational model transformations between DSVLs". The presented transformation languages are based on graph-transformation approaches and simplify the specification of computations by utilizing Plotkin's Strucural Operation Semantics (SOS), and thereby facilitate the definition of computation steps in a declarative way. This approach suffers from the versatility in the scope of DSVLs and thereby requires techniques to reduce the development costs of the transformation languages for different source and target languages. The key to reduce the development costs is the application of the Domain-specific, Full-generation, Service orientation (DFS) approach for the domain of model transformation languages. The application of domain-specifc concept results in graph-based, domain-specific two-level transformation languages. The essence of those languages is captured in a pattern describing possible two-level transformation languages. This pattern is used as the basis for the definition of a generator for those kind of transformation languages making full-generation feasible. The semantics of pattern matching and rewriting rules in the context of graph-based transformations are defined by the utilization of existing graph-transformation tools.