Eclipse Modeling Project: A Domain-Specific Language (DSL) Toolkit [Paperback]

Richard C. Gronback (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 16, 2009 | ISBN-10: 0321534077 | ISBN-13: 978-0321534071 | Edition: 1

Achieve Breakthrough Productivity and Quality with MDD and Eclipse-Based DSLs

 

Domain-specific languages (DSLs) and model-driven development (MDD) offer software engineers powerful new ways to improve productivity, enhance quality, and insulate systems from rapid technological change. Now, there’s a pragmatic, start-to-finish guide to creating DSLs and using MDD techniques with the powerful open source Eclipse platform. In Eclipse Modeling Project, Richard C. Gronback illuminates both the principles and techniques software professionals need to master, offering insights that will be invaluable to developers working with any tool or platform.

 

As coleader of the Eclipse Modeling Project, Gronback is singularly well-positioned to demonstrate DSLs and MDD at work in Eclipse. Gronback systematically introduces each of the Eclipse technologies that can be used in DSL and MDD development. Throughout, he introduces key concepts and technologies in the context of a complete worked example and presents new best practices and never-before published techniques. He also covers Eclipse projects discussed in no other book, including Query/View/Transformation (QVT) and the Graphical Modeling Framework (GMF)–a project the author personally leads.

 

Eclipse Modeling Project gives software practitioners all the knowledge they need to explore the remarkable potential of DSLs and MDD–and includes coverage of

 

• Why a model-based approach enables the rapid customization of high-quality solutions within the product line paradigm
• How the Eclipse Modeling Project’s capabilities can be used to efficiently create new DSLs
• Powerful techniques for developing DSL abstract syntax, graphical notation, and textual syntax
• How to build Model-to-Model (M2M) and Model-to-Text (M2T) transformations–including a powerful new M2M implementation of the Object Management Group’s QVT Operational Mapping Language (OML)
• Efficiently packaging and deploying DSLs with Eclipse
• Complete reference sections for the Graphical Editing Framework (GEF), GMF runtime and tooling, QVT OML, Xpand, and more

 

Foreword     xix

Preface     xxi

Acknowledgments     xxiii

About the Author     xxv

 

Part I: Introduction     1

Chapter 1: Introduction     3

Chapter 2: Modeling Project as a DSL Toolkit     17

 

Part II: Developing Domain-Specific Languages     27

Chapter 3: Developing a DSL Abstract Syntax     29

Chapter 4: Developing a DSL Graphical Notation     55

Chapter 5: Developing a DSL Textual Syntax     227

Chapter 6: Developing Model-to-Model Transformations     231

Chapter 7: Developing Model-to-Text Transformations     277

Chapter 8: DSL Packaging and Deployment     303

 

Part III: Reference     315

Chapter 9: Graphical Editing Framework     317

Chapter 10: Graphical Modeling Framework Runtime     353

Chapter 11: Graphical Modeling Framework Tooling     503

Chapter 12: Graphical Modeling Framework FAQs     545

Chapter 13: Query/View/Transformation Operational Mapping Language     549

Chapter 14: Xpand Template Language     605

 

Part IV: Appendixes     651

Appendix A: Graphical Modeling Framework Key Bindings     653

Appendix B: Model-Driven Architecture at Eclipse     661

 

References     671

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Richard Gronback is the chief scientist for modeling products at Borland Software Corporation, where he manages both open source and commercial product development. Richard represents Borland on the Eclipse Board of Directors and Planning and Architecture Councils, co-leads the Modeling project Project Management Committee (PMC), and leads the GMF and Amalgam projects. Richard holds a Bachelor of Software Engineering degree in computer science and engineering from the University of Connecticut. He was a reactor operator in the U.S. Navy before entering his current career in software.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

Preface

About This Book

This book covers a relatively new collection of technologies that focus on developing domain-specific languages (DSLs) using the Eclipse Modeling Project, offering a first look at a range of Eclipse projects that have not yet been covered in detail within this context. Although the core of these technologies has been available for several years in the Eclipse Modeling Framework (EMF), the diagrams and model transformations are emerging technologies at Eclipse. These, along with the upcoming textual syntax development frameworks, likely will be covered in subsequent editions of this book.

This book delivers a pragmatic introduction to developing a product line using a collection of domain-specific languages. A model-based, largely generative approach is designed to accommodate future adjustments to the source models, templates, and model transformation definitions, to provide customized solutions within the context of the product line. To illustrate this approach, this book presents a set of sample projects used to define a requirements product line.

Audience

This book targets developers and architects who want to learn about developing domain-specific languages using Eclipse Modeling Project technologies. It assumes a basic understanding of the Java programming language, Eclipse plug-in development, and familiarity with the Eclipse Modeling Framework (EMF). This book’s target audience are those interested in learning about the Eclipse Graphical Modeling Framework (GMF), Model-to-Model Transformation (M2M) Query/View/Transformation Operational Mapping Language (QVT OML), and Model-to-Text Transformation (M2T) Xpand project components.

The book is divided into introductory, hands on, and reference sections. Readers who want an overview of the Eclipse Modeling Project and development of DSLs in the context of an Eclipse-based product line should read Part I, “Introduction.” Readers who want to follow along in a tutorial fashion to learn how to use the projects listed earlier should read Part II, “Developing Domain-Specific Languages.” Readers also can reference the sample project solutions in this section to get an overview of the techniques. Part III, “Reference,” serves as a resource for readers who want a deeper understanding of GEF, GMF, Xpand, and QVT OML while they are completing Part II or developing their own DSL-based projects.

Readers who want to experience the benefits of a commercial version of the technologies presented here can download the Borland Together product. There they will find enhanced domain modeling, refactoring, diagram development, transformation authoring and debugging, workflow, and generation capabilities in a well-integrated DSL Toolkit.

Sample Code

The Modeling Amalgamation Project (Amalgam) at Eclipse holds the sample code from this book and is available as sample projects in the DSL Toolkit download. This package also includes all the prerequisites required for developing the sample applications.

Visit the Amalgam project Web site for more information on obtaining the DSL Toolkit: http://www.eclipse.org/modeling/amalgam.

Feedback

The examples in this book are maintained within the Modeling Amalgamation Project at Eclipse. Feedback on their content—and, therefore, this book’s contentmdis welcome on the project newsgroup, http://news.eclipse.modeling.amalgam. Alternatively, feel free to contact the author directly at [e-mail].

© Copyright Pearson Education. All rights reserved.

Product Details

• Paperback: 736 pages
• Publisher: Addison-Wesley Professional; 1 edition (March 16, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0321534077
• ISBN-13: 978-0321534071
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 7 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #709,629 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars This book may not deliver what you want, but its out there, October 11, 2009

By 

Phillip P. Schmidt "philschmidt" (Los Angeles, CA USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Eclipse Modeling Project: A Domain-Specific Language (DSL) Toolkit (Paperback)

I need to give a bit of balance to the previous reviews. I basically like the book, but it is a mixed bag and could be a lot better in certain areas. If you expect a start to finish tutorial, you will be disappointed because some background material is presented out of order and you really should read some of his cited references beforehand. For example he discusses the dynamic instance capability in EMF using a mindmap DSL, but doesn't introduce the mindmap DSL itself, until a little later. Also, it will help to have some familiarity with EMF as the coverage in chapter 3 can be followed but is a bit thin and EMF and ecore are purposefully not intended to duplicate the EMF book. The book's usefulness to you will depend upon where you are in MDD and how you want to use MDD and DSLs. The eclipse modeling project is and will undergo rapid change and this book appears somewhat rushed and rough in spots. His second edition when it comes out should be really better organizationally as the Eclipse Modeling projects mature. For example,Chapter 5 on Xtext and TCS is basically a mild description with no example content because that area was not mature at publication. The examples in Chapter 14 on the Xpand template language are in my view a bit skimpy and simplistic for folks wanting to do serious scripting. Similarly if you want to learn QVT, section 13.6 on library operations provides syntax but little to no examples, but the discussion in section 13.5.3 on the shorthand notation used in imperative iterate expressions is really helpful in understanding QVT syntax in the examples presented elsewhere in the book--like chapter 6. Therefore to get the most out of this book, you will be hopping around and be doing multiple reads and passes until it makes sense to you. Don't give up. Do buy the book if you're interested in MDD and DSLs. Gronback has done a nice job developing a mindmap and requirements DSLs that he uses in chapter 6 on model to model transformations. Although you'll need to get comfortable with the QVT and OCL, try running the examples yourself--typing them in to get used to the syntax. His view of MDA at Eclipse in Appendix B is spot on accurate, and I hope OMG takes his advice. If you are interested in graphical model development for your DSL, then Gronback offers strong support for that in Chapter 4 and Chapters 9 through 12. This is no surprise as Gronback is the project lead for GMF. However if you are interested in model to model transformations, QVT, and model to text, and OCL you will be disappointed if you are a beginner requiring step-by-step explanations of the QVT code. Also, don't give up when you reach section 3.2.4 on applying OCL. If you're new to OCL and ecore Eannotations, this will be a rough spot. Finally if you're put off by the price, I'd recommend taking a look at downloading all the OpenArchitectureware tutorials. They are a little stale wrt the later Eclipse Modeling releases, but still helpful and free!

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars from a diagram of a domain model to autogenerated code, March 29, 2009

By 

W Boudville (Terra, Sol 3) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Eclipse Modeling Project: A Domain-Specific Language (DSL) Toolkit (Paperback)

If you use Eclipse, you probably know it as a neat Integrated Development Environment for java, where perhaps you manually write all the java code. This book shows a different take on Eclipse; a much higher level of sophistication. Basically, it shows how to go from a diagram of a set of related classes to autogenerated java code. Developers have put a massive amount of effort into fleshing out this ability; something well documented by the book.

The starting diagram is a domain model. It models a scenario that you are interested in. You might think that an alternative approach is to use Backus Naur Formalism to define the same information. But the book deprecates BNF. Decades-long experience with BNF suggests that it lacks expressive power, and that perhaps the pure text nature of a BNF instantiation is too hard to grasp relationships between objects. Instead, the expression of a domain model in terms of what is roughly [or exactly] a UML diagram gives visuals that people can far more easily absorb.

What the book has is a set of very detailed tutorials. Each walks through a given example model. Fleshing out how to use Eclipse to make the model. Initially, the book's narrative is at a very abstract level, which may hard for some to follow. But the tutorials help give this substance. Each tutorial is non-trivial, and shows how Eclipse has extensive abilities to help you.

In terms of autogeneration, it's not just java code. The book gives examples of autogenerated XML, and in general we see the use of Model to Text transformation templates that spit out text files. One common feature of all of these is the sheer verbosity of the the textual output. Autogeneration saves you labour and reduces the occurrence of simple bugs. Thus Eclipse lets you work as much as possible at a diagrammatic level, which can be more productive.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Book seems out of date w.r.t. Eclipse 3.6 Helios and The Eclipse Modeling Project, December 19, 2010

By 

Zozobra (Santa Fe, NM USA) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Eclipse Modeling Project: A Domain-Specific Language (DSL) Toolkit (Paperback)

I am about 1/3 through working the tutorials in this book and really (unfortunately) finding that it is out of date with Eclipse 3.6 (Helios) and the Modeling Project. For example, the tutorials walk you through setting up projects from the Eclipse Amalgam DSL Project and that does not seem to exist anymore (even though the modeling components do in their own sub-projects under the overarching Eclipse Modeling Project). I hope their is a new edition of this book though since the author really does do a great job of explaining the practical aspects of EMF and how to integrate with GMF, XText, OCL, and other modeling project components. I really need some hands on tutorials on these.