Patterns of translating to patterns (part II)

After the introductory blog posts on the importance of modeling, the concept of model queries (with OCL and EMF-IncQuery) and model evolution, I demonstrated the translation of OCL expressions into graph patterns. Continuing from last time, I present patterns that can be applied to translate OCL expressions to the query language of EMF-IncQuery.

Patterns of translating to patterns

My previous introductory blog posts talked about the importance of modeling, the concept of model queries (with OCL and EMF-IncQuery) and model evolution. Last time, I demonstrated the translation of OCL expressions into graph patterns. Now it is time to discuss how the various OCL constructs can be mapped to graph patterns of EMF-IncQuery.

EMF-IncQuery 0.7M3 published

The EMF-IncQuery project is happy to report that we have reached our third milestone, with a special focus on finalizing the API in preparation for the 0.7.0 release in the summer. Important note: please read the migration guide to ensure a smooth upgrade path for existing EMF-IncQuery projects.

The relation between OCL and graph patterns (pun intended)

My previous introductory blog posts talked about the importance of modeling, the concept of model queries (with OCL and EMF-IncQuery) and model evolution. Now it is time to give a glimpse into my research: translating OCL expressions to graph patterns, so that incremental evaluation techniques (see EMF-IncQuery) developed for graph patterns can be applied to queries formulated in OCL.

Change or die: model queries on evolving models

...the only constant

Modeling and model queries were discussed in my previous blog posts. Now it is time to turn our attentions towards a great challenge: that of evolving models.

EMF-IncQuery presentation for Itemis

EMF-IncQuery has been presented to Itemis developers by Tamás Szabó, our former student and freshly enrolled software engineer for Itemis in Stuttgart. The slides are available on SlideShare, and the example projects can be downloaded from GitHub.

EMF-IncQuery 0.7M2 published

We have reached our second milestone, with a special focus on stability and bug fixes. We recommend to update your EMF-IncQuery installation from the Marketplace, or using the update sites.

A primer to model queries

Models are not black holes

The principle of model-driven engineering (MDE) was discussed in my previous blog post. When one reads about MDE, there is a lot of talk about creating models, as if all the engineers ever do was creating models using shiny diagram editors; like "the focus of the engineering approach is to build models of the system under design, first on a high level of abstraction, then gradually approaching platform-specific design decisions", and so on. One could even start to believe that models are some kind of information theory black hole: information is only put in, but never comes out. Well, this is not the case.

EMF-IncQuery 0.7M1 published

Today the EMF-IncQuery project finished its first milestone towards its first release at Eclipse.org. Version 0.7.0-M1 features the same performant model query engine and development tooling as our previous 0.6.x series, but also adds some new features:

Modeling... why bother?

Modeling in software engineering... why bother?

When I first heard about modeling in software engineering, I was quite skeptical. After all, why bother to create models first, when one can jump right into coding the software?