Eugenia: towards disciplined and automated development of GMF-based graphical model editors

Dimitrios S. Kolovos*, Antonio García-Domínguez, Louis M. Rose, Richard F. Paige

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Abstract

EMF and GMF are powerful frameworks for implementing tool support for modelling languages in Eclipse. However, with power comes complexity, implementing a graphical editor for a modelling language using EMF and GMF requires developers to handcraft and maintain several detailed interconnected models through a loosely guided, labour-intensive, and error-prone process. We demonstrate how the application of metamodel annotation and model transformation techniques can help to manage the complexity of GMF and EMF and deliver significant productivity, quality, and maintainability benefits. We present Eugenia, an open-source tool that implements the proposed approach, illustrate its functionality with an example, evaluate it through an empirical study, and report on the community’s response to the tool.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)229–255
Number of pages27
JournalSoftware and Systems Modeling
Volume16
Issue number1
Early online date26 Feb 2015
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - Feb 2017

Bibliographical note

The final publication is available at Springer via http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10270-015-0455-3

Keywords

  • eclipse
  • GMF
  • graphical modelling
  • model transformation

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