Model-Driven Evolution of Software Architectures - Software and ...
Model-Driven Evolution of Software Architectures - Software and ...
Model-Driven Evolution of Software Architectures - Software and ...
Create successful ePaper yourself
Turn your PDF publications into a flip-book with our unique Google optimized e-Paper software.
202 Chapter9. Conclusion<br />
evolution<strong>of</strong>modelwareartefacts. Toconcludewebrieflyrevisitthembelow.WeprimarilyusedMDAmodeltransformationsinATLtosupports<strong>of</strong>tware<br />
evolution tasks. Similar support can also be developed in other<br />
technologicalspaces. Inthegrammarwarespace,forinstance,als<strong>of</strong>ormalisms<strong>and</strong>toolsareavailableforthedefinition<strong>of</strong>languages<strong>and</strong>transformations,<br />
suchastheASF+SDF Meta-Environment[Klint,1993]<strong>and</strong><br />
Stratego/XT[Visser,2004]. Astheprocesseswedefinedforthesupport<br />
<strong>of</strong> the different evolution tasks are technology independent, our work<br />
providesthestartingpointfordevelopingsimilarsupportbyusing<strong>and</strong><br />
combiningothertechnologies. Thisraisesinterestingresearchquestions<br />
withrespecttowhichtechnologicalspaceisbestsuitedfordevelopment<strong>of</strong><br />
supportforaspecificevolutiontask<strong>and</strong>howtobettercombinelanguages<br />
<strong>and</strong>transformationsdefinedindifferenttechnologicalspaces.<br />
Assumingthatsourcecoderemainsinthegrammarware<strong>and</strong>s<strong>of</strong>tware<br />
modelsremaininthemodelwaretechnologicalspaces,thiscombination<strong>of</strong><br />
artefactsfromdifferenttechnologicalspacesisunavoidableformostsolutionsfors<strong>of</strong>twareevolutiontasks.<br />
Unfortunately,therequiredbridges<br />
currentlyneedtobespecificallydeveloped,atleastpartially.Theproblem<br />
withthebridgesweusedisthattheyaredefinedonthemetamodellevel.<br />
Forsuchbridgestobegeneric<strong>and</strong>reusabletheyshouldbedefinedonthe<br />
metametamodellevel. Infact,for MDAto XMLsuchabridgeisalready<br />
availableintheform<strong>of</strong>XMI.Asimilarbridgebetweengrammarware<strong>and</strong><br />
MDAisessentialforcombiningthesetwotechnologicalspaces.Thisbridge<br />
wouldmapEBNFtoMOFsuchthatEBNFgrammarscanbeautomatically<br />
transformedincorrespondingMOFmetamodels<strong>and</strong>viceversa,aswellas<br />
theprograms<strong>and</strong>modelsconformingtothosegrammars<strong>and</strong>metamodels.<br />
Ourexperienceshowsthatforautomaticsupport<strong>of</strong>aparticulars<strong>of</strong>twareevolutiontaskmultiplemodeltransformationsarerequired.<br />
Each<br />
modeltransformationinvolvesitsowntransformationrules,source<strong>and</strong><br />
targetmodels,<strong>and</strong>correspondingmetamodels.Moreover,<strong>of</strong>tenthesupport<br />
<strong>of</strong>evolutiontasksalsoinvolvesoperationsoutsidetheMDAspace,suchas<br />
XSLTtransformationsintheXMLspace,orsed<strong>and</strong>Perlscripts.Thismakes<br />
thatthemanagement<strong>of</strong>alltheinvolvedartefact<strong>and</strong>transformationssteps<br />
requiresspecialattention.Althoughthisproblemwasnotthefocus<strong>of</strong>our<br />
research,inonecaseweusedabuildtool(Ant)tosolvethisproblem.However,withthisapproach,therequiredconfigurationfilesalsotendtoget<br />
verycomplex. Assuch,thisproblemcallsforadditionalsupport,which<br />
requiresadditionalresearch.<br />
Meansforthemanagement<strong>of</strong>modelwareartefactsareessentialforsuccessfulapplication<strong>of</strong>oursolutionsinindustry.<br />
Similartoothers<strong>of</strong>tware<br />
developmentartefactsthismodelwareisalsoexpectedtoevolve. Interestingpossibilitiestominimisetherequiredevolution<strong>of</strong>suchartefactsby
Change language