A Domain Specific Transformation Language
This addresses the issue for domain experts in modeling who need more accessible tools, though it is incremental as it builds on existing DSL concepts.
The paper tackles the problem of domain experts struggling with generic transformation languages by introducing a transformation language that reuses the concrete syntax of a textual modeling language for hierarchical automata, allowing them to describe models and modifications more comprehensibly and precisely.
Domain specific languages (DSLs) allow domain experts to model parts of the system under development in a problem-oriented notation that is well-known in the respective domain. The introduction of a DSL is often accompanied the desire to transform its instances. Although the modeling language is domain specific, the transformation language used to describe modifications, such as model evolution or refactoring operations, on the underlying model, usually is a rather domain independent language nowadays. Most transformation languages use a generic notation of model patterns that is closely related to typed and attributed graphs or to object diagrams (the abstract syntax). A notation that reflects the transformed elements of the original DSL in its own concrete syntax would be strongly preferable, because it would be more comprehensible and easier to learn for domain experts. In this paper we present a transformation language that reuses the concrete syntax of a textual modeling language for hierarchical automata, which allows domain experts to describe models as well as modifications of models in a convenient, yet precise manner. As an outlook, we illustrate a scenario where we generate transformation languages from existing textual languages.