EuGENia Live: A Flexible Graphical Modelling Tool

Today, we have powerful tools for implementing DSLs. But, what about tools for designing DSLs? We present EuGENia Live, which is our first attempt at providing a flexible and web-based tool for designing DSLs.

This talk was presented at the 2012 eXtreme Modelling (XM) workshop co-located with MoDELS in Innsbruck, Austria.

Transcript

1. EUGENIA LIVE A Flexible Graphical Modelling Tool Louis Rose / Dimitris Kolovos / Richard Paige 1
2. DOMAIN-SPECIFIC LANGUAGES The good news: powerful tools for implementing DSLs 2 Language definition (e.g. metamodel) Programs (e.g. models) Execution / Processing (e.g. model transformations) Tools (e.g. model editors)
3. DOMAIN-SPECIFIC LANGUAGES 3 conforms to model metamodel
4. DOMAIN-SPECIFIC LANGUAGES 4 conforms to model metamodel
5. DOMAIN-SPECIFIC LANGUAGES 5 conforms to model metamodel
6. DOMAIN-SPECIFIC LANGUAGES 6 model metamodel
7. DOMAIN-SPECIFIC LANGUAGES 7 model metamodel The bad news: these tools can be inflexible and hard to learn
8. DOMAIN-SPECIFIC LANGUAGES 8 model metamodel The bad news: these tools can be inflexible and hard to learn
9. OVERVIEW • What can we learn from flexible modelling tools? • Demonstration of a flexible modelling tool for creating DSLs • What next? 9
10. FLEXIBLE MODELLING TOOLS Sacrifice formality to favour simplicity and to facilitate change 10 model metamodel
11. DESIGNING A DSL can be a collaborative, iterative & incremental process 11
12. FLEXIBLE & RIGID MODELLING Rigid Flexible Such as... GMF (EuGENia) MetaCase+ Xtext Smart office Demonstration / by-example Technical expertise Metamodelling / BNF Drawing / data entry Change management Hard! (Retroactive?) Easier (Reactive?) Model representation Explicit structure Implicit / inferred structure 12
13. FLEXIBLE & RIGID MODELLING Rigid Flexible Such as... GMF (EuGENia) MetaCase+ Xtext Smart office tools By-example (Cho, Desmond) Technical expertise Metamodelling / BNF Drawing / data entry Change management Hard! (Retroactive?) Easier (Reactive?) Model representation Explicit structure Implicit / inferred structure 13
14. EUGENIA LIVE Rigid Flexible Such as... GMF (EuGENia) MetaCase+ Xtext Smart office tools By-example (Cho, Desmond) Technical expertise Metamodelling / BNF Drawing / data entry Change management Hard! (Retroactive?) Easier (Reactive?) Model representation Explicit structure Implicit / inferred structure 14
15. EUGENIA LIVE • Technical expertise: Focus on concrete syntax Bootstrap a new DSL with a built-in DSL Runs in a browser (no installation) 15
16. EUGENIA LIVE • Technical expertise: Focus on concrete syntax Bootstrap a new DSL with a built-in DSL Runs in a browser (no installation) • Change management: Metamodel defined on-the-fly at same time as a model 16
17. EUGENIA LIVE • Technical expertise: Focus on concrete syntax Bootstrap a new DSL with a built-in DSL Runs in a browser (no installation) • Change management: Metamodel defined on-the-fly at same time as a model • Model representation: Exports to Ecore & a GMF editor 17
18. EUGENIA LIVE’S METAMETAMODEL tm;dr 18
19. EUGENIA LIVE’S DATA STRUCTURES 19
20. EUGENIA LIVE’S DATA STRUCTURES 20
21. DEMO 21
22. DSL design begins by creating a “drawing” 22
23. Built-in palettes can be re-used to bootstrap DSL design 23
24. Here, we load a DSL that we started earlier 24
25. The drawing editor is used to test the DSL 25
26. New drawing elements are created with the palette 26
27. The palette can be edited on-the-fly 27
28. Here, we can edit a JSON serialisation of the edge (“link”) 28
29. EUGENIA LIVE’S DATA STRUCTURES 29
30. EuGENia Live supports two metamodelling notations 30
31. EuGENia notation might be more convenient for MDE experts 31
32. Here, the newly defined concept (“partner”) is used 32
33. Changing the “guest” concept 33
34. EUGENIA LIVE’S DATA STRUCTURES 34
35. { "name": "Guest", "elements": [ { "figure": "circle", "size": { "width": 10, "height": 10 }, "fillColor": "white", "borderColor": "black", } ] } Changing the “guest” concept 35
36. { "name": "Male Guest", "elements": [ { "figure": "circle", "size": { "width": 10, "height": 10 }, "fillColor": "white", "borderColor": "black", }, { "figure": "circle", "size": { "width": 6, "height": 6 }, "fillColor": "blue", "borderColor": "blue", } ] } Changing the “guest” concept 36
37. Changes are propagated to the drawing 37
38. EUGENIA LIVE’S DATA STRUCTURES 38
39. Exporting the palette to GMF 39
40. Exporting the palette to GMF 40
41. The resulting GMF editor 41
42. eugenialive.herokuapp.com α 42
43. OPPORTUNITIES & CHALLENGES • Incremental model migration Immediately propagate changes? • Switching syntaxes • Language quality How to reduce duplication? • Closer collaboration How to reduce duplication? • Choosing level of flexibility 43
44. FUTURE WORK • Graphical notation for the palette editor • Comparison to demonstration & by-example approaches • Contribute flexible modelling tools to Eclipse Modeling Project 44
45. www.eclipse.org/epsilon
46. Dimitris Kolovos Louis Rose Richard Paige @louismrose @kolovos @richpaige ?
47. WHY (CARE ABOUT) DSLS? 47
48. DOMAIN-SPECIFIC LANGUAGES DSLs are key for model-driven engineering UML DSL (own) BPMN DSL (tool provider) SysML Matlab / Simulink Other 0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% 100% Percentage of respondents using each modelling language [Hutchinson 2011]. 48