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Concrete syntax: a multi-paradigm modelling approach

Authors:

Yentl Van Tendeloo,

Simon Van Mierlo,

Hans VangheluweAuthors Info & Claims

SLE 2017: Proceedings of the 10th ACM SIGPLAN International Conference on Software Language Engineering

Pages 182 - 193

https://doi.org/10.1145/3136014.3136017

Published: 23 October 2017 Publication History

Abstract

Domain-Specific Modelling Languages (DSLs) allow domain experts to create models using abstractions they are most familiar with. A DSL's syntax is specified in two parts: the abstract syntax defines the language's concepts and their allowed combinations, and the concrete syntax defines how those concepts are presented to the user (typically using a graphical or textual notation). However important concrete syntax is for the usability of the language, current modelling tools offer limited possibilities for defining the mapping between abstract and concrete syntax. Often, the language designer is restricted to defining a single icon representation of each concept, which is then rendered to the user in a (fixed) graphical interface. This paper presents a framework that explicitly models the bi-directional mapping between the abstract and concrete syntax, thereby making these restrictions easy to overcome. It is more flexible and allows, amongst others, for a model to be represented in multiple front-ends, using multiple representation formats, and multiple mappings. Our approach is evaluated with an implementation in our prototype tool, the Modelverse, and by applying it on an example language.

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Cited By

Mifsud ASamaritaki GTikhonova UStoel JBeckmann THirschfeld RSáenz JMerino M(2023)Transforming an Internal Textual DSL into a Blended Modelling EnvironmentProceedings of the 2nd ACM SIGPLAN International Workshop on Programming Abstractions and Interactive Notations, Tools, and Environments10.1145/3623504.3623572(51-61)Online publication date: 18-Oct-2023
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3623504.3623572
Nachreiner LRaschke AStegmaier MTichy MGuerra EIovino L(2020)CouchEditProceedings of the 23rd ACM/IEEE International Conference on Model Driven Engineering Languages and Systems: Companion Proceedings10.1145/3417990.3421401(1-5)Online publication date: 16-Oct-2020
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3417990.3421401
Rodriguez-Echeverria RIzquierdo JWimmer MCabot JWąsowski APaige RHaugen Ø(2018)Towards a Language Server Protocol Infrastructure for Graphical ModelingProceedings of the 21th ACM/IEEE International Conference on Model Driven Engineering Languages and Systems10.1145/3239372.3239383(370-380)Online publication date: 14-Oct-2018
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3239372.3239383
Show More Cited By

Index Terms

Concrete syntax: a multi-paradigm modelling approach
1. Computing methodologies
  1. Modeling and simulation
    1. Model development and analysis
2. Software and its engineering
  1. Software notations and tools
    1. Context specific languages
      1. Domain specific languages
    2. Development frameworks and environments
      1. Integrated and visual development environments

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Information & Contributors

Information

Published In

cover image ACM Conferences

SLE 2017: Proceedings of the 10th ACM SIGPLAN International Conference on Software Language Engineering

October 2017

267 pages

ISBN:9781450355254

DOI:10.1145/3136014

General Chair:
Benoit Combemale
University of Rennes 1, France
,
Program Chairs:
Marjan Mernik
University of Maribor, Slovenia
,
Bernhard Rumpe
RWTH Aachen University, Germany

Copyright © 2017 ACM.

Permission to make digital or hard copies of all or part of this work for personal or classroom use is granted without fee provided that copies are not made or distributed for profit or commercial advantage and that copies bear this notice and the full citation on the first page. Copyrights for components of this work owned by others than ACM must be honored. Abstracting with credit is permitted. To copy otherwise, or republish, to post on servers or to redistribute to lists, requires prior specific permission and/or a fee. Request permissions from [email protected]

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SIGPLAN: ACM Special Interest Group on Programming Languages

In-Cooperation

SIGAda: ACM Special Interest Group on Ada Programming Language

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Association for Computing Machinery

New York, NY, United States

Publication History

Published: 23 October 2017

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Agentschap voor Innovatie door Wetenschap en Technologie
Flanders Make vzw
Fonds Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek

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SPLASH '17

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SIGPLAN

SPLASH '17: Conference on Systems, Programming, Languages, and Applications: Software for Humanity

October 23 - 24, 2017

BC, Vancouver, Canada

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Cited By

Mifsud ASamaritaki GTikhonova UStoel JBeckmann THirschfeld RSáenz JMerino M(2023)Transforming an Internal Textual DSL into a Blended Modelling EnvironmentProceedings of the 2nd ACM SIGPLAN International Workshop on Programming Abstractions and Interactive Notations, Tools, and Environments10.1145/3623504.3623572(51-61)Online publication date: 18-Oct-2023
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3623504.3623572
Nachreiner LRaschke AStegmaier MTichy MGuerra EIovino L(2020)CouchEditProceedings of the 23rd ACM/IEEE International Conference on Model Driven Engineering Languages and Systems: Companion Proceedings10.1145/3417990.3421401(1-5)Online publication date: 16-Oct-2020
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3417990.3421401
Rodriguez-Echeverria RIzquierdo JWimmer MCabot JWąsowski APaige RHaugen Ø(2018)Towards a Language Server Protocol Infrastructure for Graphical ModelingProceedings of the 21th ACM/IEEE International Conference on Model Driven Engineering Languages and Systems10.1145/3239372.3239383(370-380)Online publication date: 14-Oct-2018
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3239372.3239383
Van Tendeloo YVangheluwe H(2018)Unifying Model- and Screen Sharing2018 IEEE 27th International Conference on Enabling Technologies: Infrastructure for Collaborative Enterprises (WETICE)10.1109/WETICE.2018.00031(127-132)Online publication date: Jun-2018
https://doi.org/10.1109/WETICE.2018.00031

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