Section: Overall Objectives

Previous Achievements

AtlanMod has significantly contributed to the evolution of MDE and to the progressive emergence of a scientific community in this field. The team has progressively developed a complete modeling framework [48] [58] that is now well accepted in the scientific community. This framework provides core MDE components (described in several research papers e.g., [56] [57] [51] [55] [7] ) for (meta)model definition and manipulation. The iterative definition of this conceptual framework has been validated by the construction of the MDE toolbox AmmA (for AtlanMod Model Management Architecture) available in Eclipse. This is at the same time a research platform and an industrial toolbox.

The AmmA platform is based on the conclusion that MDE is in fact a branch of language engineering. Models can be formally defined by means of metamodels, considered as the definition of the abstract syntax of a language in the same way grammars are used to define programming languages. Modeling languages are then the combination of a metamodel (abstract syntax), a notation (concrete syntax) plus a definition of the language semantics. In this sense, the AmmA toolbox can be regarded as a kind of language workbench offering the building blocks to define and manipulate models and metamodels. All these mutually interrelated tools are available under Eclipse.org (projects or components: M2M, ATL, TMF, AM3, AMW). They are currently in use in research, teaching, and industry and they have a broad user community.

Beyond the development of core MDE components, AtlanMod has also expressed a strong interest in the application and adaptation of these building blocks for specially relevant and challenging industrial problems. As an example, In this context, AtlanMod has been leading the MoDisco project (urlhttp://eclipse.org/MoDisco/) to build reverse engineering solutions for legacy systems.