DocumentCode :
3169713
Title :
Generating Version Convertors for Domain-Specific Languages
Author :
de Geest, G. ; Vermolen, Sander ; Van Deursen, Arie ; Visser, Eelco
Author_Institution :
Avanade Netherlands B.V., Almere
fYear :
2008
fDate :
15-18 Oct. 2008
Firstpage :
197
Lastpage :
201
Abstract :
Domain-specific languages (DSLs) improve programmer productivity by providing high-level abstractions for the development of applications in a particular domain. However,the smaller distance to the application domain entails more frequent changes to the language. As a result, existing DSL models need to be converted to the new version. Manual conversion is tedious and error prone.This paper presents an approach to support DSL evolution by generation of convertors between DSLs. By analyzing the differences between DSL meta-models, a mapping is reverse engineered which can be used to generate reengineering tools to automatically convert models between different versions of a DSL. The approach has been implemented for the Microsoft DSL Tools infrastructure in two tools called DSLCompare and ConverterGenerator. The approach has been evaluated by means of three case studies taken from the software development practice at the company Avanade.
Keywords :
formal specification; programming languages; specification languages; ConverterGenerator; DSLCompare; application domain; domain-specific language meta-models; high-level abstractions; programmer productivity; reengineering tools; software development; version convertors; Application software; Converters; Costs; DSL; Domain specific languages; Metamodeling; Productivity; Programming profession; Reverse engineering; Software maintenance; Microsoft DSL Tools; meta-model differences; migration; model-driven engineering; software evolution;
fLanguage :
English
Publisher :
ieee
Conference_Titel :
Reverse Engineering, 2008. WCRE '08. 15th Working Conference on
Conference_Location :
Antwerp
ISSN :
1095-1350
Print_ISBN :
978-0-7695-3429-9
Type :
conf
DOI :
10.1109/WCRE.2008.50
Filename :
4656410
Link To Document :
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