Java Reference
In-Depth Information
Although the Eclipse Modeling Project makes little mention of MDA proper,
it is nonetheless supported to a large degree, as discussed shortly. In fact, Eclipse
has significantly contributed to the success and realization of MDA, providing an
open source platform and de facto reference implementations for many of the
MDA specifications. Unfortunately, this has been done with minimal collaboration
with the OMG. Improved collaboration likely will increase the success of both
organizations as they strive to increase the adoption of model-driven development.
Implemented Standards
The Eclipse Modeling Project is a top-level Eclipse project that is logically
structured into projects that provide abstract syntax definition, concrete syntax
development, Model-to-Model Transformation (M2M), and Model-to-Text
Transformation (M2T). Additionally, the Model Development Tools (MDT)
project focuses on providing implementations of industry-standard metamodels
and exemplary tools for developing models based on those metamodels. This
range of functionality provides its community with a full range of model-driven
software development (MDSD) capabilities, many of which conform to pub-
lished MDA specifications.
Although the top-level Modeling project is the primary location for MDA-
related activity at Eclipse, other projects within Eclipse have modeling-related
technology and specification implementations. For example, the Software
Process Engineering Model (SPEM) [4] is implemented as part of the Eclipse
Process Framework (EPF) [5] project, while BPMN diagramming [18] is pro-
vided by the SOA Tools project [19].
It's also worth pointing out that the Eclipse Modeling Project provides alter-
native technologies for several of the OMG's MDA specifications. These are
discussed shortly because they are popular technologies with strong user com-
munities. In most cases, their implementations precede the corresponding OMG
specification.
Altogether, these projects fulfill most of the MDA vision, while certainly ful-
filling general MDSD and domain-specific language (DSL) tooling requirements.
The following is a list of the relevant MDA specifications and their implementa-
tion status within Eclipse. This is not an exhaustive list of MDA specifications,
but these are the most relevant within the current scope of the Eclipse Modeling
Project.
Meta-Object Facility (MOF)
We cannot overstate the importance of having a common underlying metamodel,
provided by the Meta-Object Facility (MOF) [11] specification. MOF—or, more
 
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