Generating domain-specific visual language tools from abstract visual specifications

John C. Grundy; John Hosking; Karen Na Li; Norhayati Mohd Ali; Jun Huh; Richard Lei Li

doi:10.1109/TSE.2012.33

Generating domain-specific visual language tools from abstract visual specifications

John C. Grundy^*, John Hosking, Karen Na Li, Norhayati Mohd Ali, Jun Huh, Richard Lei Li

^*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

32 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Domain-specific visual languages support high-level modeling for a wide range of application domains. However, building tools to support such languages is very challenging. We describe a set of key conceptual requirements for such tools and our approach to addressing these requirements, a set of visual language-based metatools. These support definition of metamodels, visual notations, views, modeling behaviors, design critics, and model transformations and provide a platform to realize target visual modeling tools. Extensions support collaborative work, human-centric tool interaction, and multiplatform deployment. We illustrate application of the metatoolset on tools developed with our approach. We describe tool developer and cognitive evaluations of our platform and our exemplar tools, and summarize key future research directions.

Original language	English
Article number	6205768
Pages (from-to)	487-515
Number of pages	29
Journal	IEEE Transactions on Software Engineering
Volume	39
Issue number	4
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1109/TSE.2012.33
Publication status	Published - 2013

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10.1109/TSE.2012.33

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abstract = "Domain-specific visual languages support high-level modeling for a wide range of application domains. However, building tools to support such languages is very challenging. We describe a set of key conceptual requirements for such tools and our approach to addressing these requirements, a set of visual language-based metatools. These support definition of metamodels, visual notations, views, modeling behaviors, design critics, and model transformations and provide a platform to realize target visual modeling tools. Extensions support collaborative work, human-centric tool interaction, and multiplatform deployment. We illustrate application of the metatoolset on tools developed with our approach. We describe tool developer and cognitive evaluations of our platform and our exemplar tools, and summarize key future research directions.",

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AU - Li, Richard Lei

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AB - Domain-specific visual languages support high-level modeling for a wide range of application domains. However, building tools to support such languages is very challenging. We describe a set of key conceptual requirements for such tools and our approach to addressing these requirements, a set of visual language-based metatools. These support definition of metamodels, visual notations, views, modeling behaviors, design critics, and model transformations and provide a platform to realize target visual modeling tools. Extensions support collaborative work, human-centric tool interaction, and multiplatform deployment. We illustrate application of the metatoolset on tools developed with our approach. We describe tool developer and cognitive evaluations of our platform and our exemplar tools, and summarize key future research directions.

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JO - IEEE Transactions on Software Engineering

JF - IEEE Transactions on Software Engineering

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Generating domain-specific visual language tools from abstract visual specifications

Abstract

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