Database Reference
In-Depth Information
Chapter XIII
Framework for the Rapid
Development of Modeling
Environments
Akos Ledeczi, Vanderbilt University, USA
Miklos Maroti, Vanderbilt University, USA
Peter Volgyesi, Hungarian Academy of Sciences, Hungary
ABSTRACT
This chapter introduces the concepts and techniques required for developing graphical,
domain-specifi c modeling and program synthesis environments. It argues that a fully func-
tional modeling environment can be quickly developed for a wide variety of engineering
domains using a confi gurable and extensible toolset with a limited set of generic concepts.
The confi guration is accomplished through metamodels specifying the modeling language
and methodology containing all syntactic, semantic and presentation information of the
domain. The authors applied this approach to several real-world systems.
INTRODUCTION
Graphical modeling environments for system development are integrated sets of
modeling, model analysis, simulation and code generation tools that aid the design of sys-
tems in a particular, well-defi ned engineering fi eld. These toolsets capture specifi cations
in the form of domain models, support the design process by automated systems analysis
and simulation and automatically generate, confi gure or integrate components of the target
applications. Examples for such domain-specifi c environments are Rational Rose for ob-
ject-oriented software development, Matlab/Simulink for signal processing and LabView
for instrumentation.
