Archive for March, 2008

Code Generation

Not strictly Gen-related, but since there is a component of Gen that is a code generator (Java,Cobol, C, .Net etc etc), there is a site called CodeGeneration which may be of interest. Gen’s cousin products Plex and 2E are mentioned, as are other code generator-type products. Interestingly Gen isn’t mentioned…. but I’m working to change that.

There is a conference in the UK which may be of interest to Genners….

Gathering 4

It has become obvious over the past few years that there have been a number of tools and techniques that have “come from nowhere”. Look at where Java was a few years ago – a niche language for web applications – now its everywhere.

Take Ruby, as another example – where was that even 1 year ago – now everyone is talking about “Ruby on Rails” – does anyone really know where the separation is between Ruby and its independant IDE – Rails ?

The 4th Gen Gathering on 19th March 2008 will try and answer the question “What needs to happen to Gen to allow it to have the same high-profile as these frameworks”.

Check out http://gathering.gentalk.biz to get details of how to sign up and how to participate in this discussion and make your voice heard !
Don’t forget to sign up to Second Life and join “The Gen Gathering” group in advance of the event to get your free Gentalk T-shirt to wear to the Gathering, where you’ll also receive your free event-specific T-shirt for your Second Life Persona to wear.

Gen, UML and the DSL boat – Part 1

In recent gen Gatherings, a lot of discussion has been had about the tools and techniques that surround UML and Gen. However – is there another boat that Gen should be trying to board ? That of the DSL – or – Domain Specific Language.

A previous post in this blog waxed lyrical about DSLs,but it’s time I revisited that subject.

Domain-specific languages are designed to do one thing very well. C is not a DSL, as it is a general purpose language. Gen is usually used to manipulate data within databases, so can be considered a DSL. Yes, it has the ability to present that data in a variety of forms, but inherantly, its a DSL – long before the term DSL was coined!

Many examples of DSLs are to be found in Model-Driven-Engineering. Gen is a Model-Driven-Architecture  toolset, and as such, models and DSLs are of interest

Wikipedia defines a Model-Driven-Architecture as requiring some or all of the following:

Creation Tool:A tool used to elicit initial models and/or edit derived models.
Analysis Tool: A tool used to check models for completeness, inconsistencies, or error and warning conditions. Also used to calculate metrics for the model.
Transformation Tool: A tool used to transform models into other models or into code and documentation.
Composition Tool: A tool used to compose (i.e. to merge according to a given composition semantics) several source models, preferably conforming to the same metamodel.
Test Tool: A tool used to “test” models as described in Model-based testing.
Simulation Tool: A tool used to simulate the execution of a system represented by a given model. This is related to the subject of model execution.
Metadata Management Tool: A tool intended to handle the general relations between different models, including the metadata on each model (e.g. author, date of creation or modification, method of creation (which tool? which transformation? etc.)) and the mutual relations between these models (i.e. one metamodel is a version of another one, one model has been derived from another one by a transformation, etc.)
Reverse Engineering Tool: A tool intended to transform particular legacy or information artifact portfolios into full-fledged models.

Let’s test the theory that Gen is a Model-Driven-Architecture, shall we ???

Looking at Gen and its eco-system – do we have any of these at our disposal ?

Creation Tool: Pretty obvious – the toolset itself
Analysis Tool: many tools for this including the toolset itself and IET‘s verifIEr and Jumar‘s Model nalyser/ Model Reporter tools
Transformation Tool: The generators do this, as do some ecosystem tools (ModelCVS and Jumar:Links UML interface, for example) 
Composition Tool: Adoption within models broadly equates to this capability – importing model information from other models.
Test Tool: Jumar’s deployment of automatically generated test-harnesses for components as part of the Project Phoenix methodology.
Simulation Tool: Does this really equate to a “build and deploy” stage – i.e. the generators
Metadata Management Tool: I guess the nearest we get to this is model versioning such as we can get from GuardIEn
Reverse Engineering Tool: Many of the Legacy Renewal technologies – ModelCVS, Evolveware and others can import a set of Legacy source code in COBOL, Natural, PL/1 etc into Gen

So – yes we can consider Gen to be a true fuly-fledged MDA-complient toolset.

So where do DSLs fit into this then ?

I’ll worry about that in Part 2 !