The crucial point in Model Driven Architecture (MDA 1) is that software and system development are based on abstract models that are successively transformed into more specific models, ideally resulting in the desired system. To this end, developers must be enabled to model different aspects like structure, behavior, consistency constraints of the system. This results in a variety of related models, which in turn need tool support on the metalevel. However, there is a lack of tools offering uniform support for metamodel definition, analysis, transformation, and integration. In this paper we present the metamodeling framework MOFLON that addresses these issues by bringing together the latest OMG standards with graph transformations and their formal semantics. MOFLON provides a combination of visual and textual notations and offers powerful modularization concepts. Using MOFLON, developers can generate code for specific tools needed to perform the desired modeling tasks.

In a graphical user interface, physical layout and abstract structure are two important aspects of a graph. This article proposes a new graph grammar formalism which integrates both the spatial and structural specification mechanisms in a single framework. This formalism is equipped with a parser that performs in polynomial time with an improved parsing complexity over its nonspatial predecessor, that is, the Reserved Graph Grammar. With the extended expressive power, the formalism is suitable for many user interface applications. The article presents its application in adaptive Web design and presentation.

Model transformation (MT) is a key technology in the model-driven development approach of software engineering that provides automated means to capture the evolution of models and mappings between modeling languages. The pattern and rule-based paradigm of graph transformation is considered a very popular approach for specifying such model transformations. While the expressiveness of different MT specification techniques is frequently compared on well-known transformation problems (e.g. UMLto-XMI, or UML-to-EJB mappings), no such benchmarks exist currently for comparing the performance of different model transformation tools. In the paper, we propose a systematic method for quantitative benchmarking in order to assess the performance of graph transformation tools. Typical features of the graph transformation paradigm and various optimization strategies exploited in different tools are identified and categorized. Moreover, the performance of several popular graph transformation tools is measured and compared on a well-known distributed mutual exclusion problem.

This extended abstract demonstrates that creating editors and environments for visual languages becomes considerably easier when restricting the class of visual languages. The presented approach considers graph-like languages whose diagrams consist of nodes and edges with di#erent types. The specification method allows to describe such graphs in terms of their node and edge types and makes use of constraints in order to express syntactic properties. The DiaGen system is used to generate running editors from such specifications.

Abstract. Using domain-specific modelling environments maximally constrains users, matching their mental model of the problem domain, and allows them to only build syntactically correct models. Anecdotal evidence shows that domainspecific modelling can drastically improve productivity as well as product quality. In this paper, the foundations of (domain-specific) modelling language design are presented. Our guiding principle is to “model everything”. It is indeed shown how all aspects of language design can be explicitly (meta-)modelled enabling the efficient synthesis of domain-specific, visual, modelling environments. The case of AToM 3, A Tool for Multi-formalism and Meta Modelling, is elaborated. Concepts are illustrated by modelling, analysis, simulation, and eventual synthesis of software for Traffic networks. 1 Dissecting a Modelling Language To explicitly model domain-specific modelling languages and ultimately synthesize visual modelling environments for those, we will break down a modelling language into its basic constituents. The following is based on a description by Harel and Rumpe [1],

This paper presents the combined use of meta-modelling and graph grammars for the generation of visual modelling tools for simulation formalisms. In meta-modelling, formalisms are described at a meta-level. This information is used by a meta-model processor to generate modelling tools for the described formalisms. We combine meta-modelling with graph grammars to extend the model manipulation capabilities of the generated modelling tools, as we store (meta-)models as graphs, and thus, express model manipulations as graph grammars. We show the design and implementation of these concepts in AToM 3 (A Tool for Multi-formalism, Meta-Modelling). As an example we will present a meta-model for Causal Block Diagrams and a graph grammar to generate OOCSMP code, a continuous simulation language which has a compiler able to generate Java applets from the simulations models.

Shapely nested graph transformation is the computational model for DiaPlan, a language for programming with graphs that represent diagrams. It supports nested structuring of graphs, structural graph types (shapes), and graph variables. In this paper, we extend the model by two concepts that are essential for programming: abstraction allows compound transformations to be named and parameterized, and control allows the order of rule application to be specified. These concepts combine neatly with the underlying computational model, and preserve its rule-based and graph-ical nature.

DIAPLAN is a language for programming with graphs representing diagrams that is currently being developed. The computational model of the languages, nested graph transformation, supports nested structuring of graphs, and graph variables, but is--hopefully--still intuitive. This paper is about structural typing of nested graphs and nested graph transformation systems by shape rules. We extend the context-free shape rules proposed in earlier work to context-exploiting shape rules by which many relevant graph structures can be specified. The conformance of a nested graph to shape rules is decidable. If a transformation system conforms to shape rules as well, it can be shown to preserve shape conformance of the graphs it is applied to. This sets up a static type discipline for nested graph transformation.

This extended abstract recalls how visual language editors benefit from graph grammars and how the editor-generator DiaGen is based on this approach. We then outline how generated editors can create abstract diagram representations for further processing, e. g. for communication with other tools or for diagram visualizations with varying, adjustable detail level which is a valuable aid when editing large diagrams. These concepts are illustrated with UML class diagrams. 1

This paper presents a new characterization of graph transformation rules for simple digraphs based on boolean matrix algebra. We introduce the concept of coherence, which allows the analysis of potential incompatibilities among rules that take part in a sequence of productions. Concurrency is studied under the interleaving and the explicit parallelism views. For the former, the notion of sequential independence is generalized to arbitrary permutations of rules. For the latter, rule composition is defined, which does not generate intermediate states.