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Modeling Language Variability

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Foundations of Computer Software. Modeling, Development, and Verification of Adaptive Systems (Monterey Workshop 2010)

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Abstract

A systematic way of defining variants of a modeling language is useful for adapting the language to domain or project specific needs. Variants can be obtained by adapting the syntax or semantics of the language. In this paper, we take a formal approach to define modeling language variability and show how this helps to reason about language variants, models, and their semantics formally. We introduce the notion of semantic language refinement meaning that one semantics variant is implied by another. Leaving open all variation points that a modeling language offers yields the notion of the inner semantics of that language. Properties of the modeling language which do not depend on the selection of specific variants are called invariant language properties with respect to a variation point. These properties consequently follow from the inner semantics of a model or language.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Software Engineering, RWTH Aachen University, Germany

    Hans Grönniger & Bernhard Rumpe

Authors
  1. Hans Grönniger
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  2. Bernhard Rumpe
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Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Oxford University, Wolfson Building, Parks Road, OX1 3QD, Oxford, UK

    Radu Calinescu

  2. Microsoft Research, One Microsoft Way, 98052-6399, Redmond, WA, USA

    Ethan Jackson

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Grönniger, H., Rumpe, B. (2011). Modeling Language Variability. In: Calinescu, R., Jackson, E. (eds) Foundations of Computer Software. Modeling, Development, and Verification of Adaptive Systems. Monterey Workshop 2010. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 6662. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-21292-5_2

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-21292-5_2

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-642-21291-8

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-642-21292-5

  • eBook Packages: Computer ScienceComputer Science (R0)

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