Ontological Metamodeling with Explicit Instantiation

Model Driven Engineering (MDE) is a promising paradigm for development. It raises the level of abstraction in software development by treating models as primary artifacts. The practical application of this paradigm is seriously endangered by the current weak modeling foundation of the approach. The definition of a metamodel is a recurring task in MDE and requires sound and formal support. The lack of such support causes deficiencies such as conceptual anomalies in the modeling languages, limited applicability of model transformations, and limited reuse of model libraries. From philosophical point of view metamodels can be seen as ontological commitments. Metalanguages have to provide constructs for building ontological theories as a base for modeling languages. This paper describes a new metalanguage derived from the study of Formal Ontology. This uage raises the level of abstraction of metamodels from pure abstract syntax to semantics descriptions based on ontologies. Thus the languag...

• Type: Conference
• Year: 2009
• Where: SLE
• Authors: Alfons Laarman, Ivan Kurtev
• Keywords: Model Driven Engineering, SLE 2009, Software Engineering, Support Causes Deficiencies, Weak Modeling Foundation