Software Mumbles and Grumbles

Over the past few days I’ve been reviewing the editorial schedules of many of the key magazines and journals in the software industry. It was tremendously encouraging to see the number of magazines which are planning feature coverage on the topics of Model-Driven Development (MDD) and Domain-Specific Languages (DSLs). Some of them, such as Objekt Spektrum, have even made MDD a regular topic in every issue. This is a positive sign of the changing attitude in the industry towards MDD; software developers, as well as journalists, are recognizing the major benefits MDD, particularly Domain-Specific Modeling, can offer.

In case you haven’t noticed yet, the papers, presentations, and some photos, from the 2007 OOPSLA conference on Domain-Specific Modeling are now posted on the DSM Forum website.

 www.dsmforum.org/events/DSM07/

For organizations beginning their first model-driven activities a common question is: “How do I get started?”

But for those veteran organizations, well acquainted with the world of model-driven engineering, looking to make the move from their current, under-performing modeling tool to something better (i.e. Domain-Specific Modeling), there exists a different question: “What happens to all our current models?”

Months—or, quite possibly years—have been spent laboriously defining their existing modeling language and models, and developers understandably do not want to see that work go to waste. They recognize the benefits that DSM  would provide for their organization, but are wary on how to proceed in light of all their existing work.

This is why MetaEdit+^® has been designed to fully support the importation of existing models, thereby enabling organizations to quickly and efficiently make the transition from their existing modeling tool to MetaEdit+ without any loss of data. Models can be imported via standard formats, such as XML, XMI, and GXL, or directly into MetaEdit+ using MetaEdit+ API. MetaCase’s expert staff is available throughout the entire upgrade process, helping to make sure that the move forward is quick and trouble-free.