Cicchetti, Antonio;
Ruscio, Davide Di;
Pierantonio, Alfonso:
A Metamodel independent approach to difference
representation;
Journal of Object Technology 6:9, October 2007,
p.165-185; appears also in: Proceedings TOOLS EUROPE 2007, Zurich
(Switzerland);
2007
Download: Volltext
Deskriptoren: CVSM,
model:difference:visualization,
model:difference:representation
Abstract: It is of critical relevance that designers are able
to comprehend the various kinds of design-level structural
evolution that a system undergoes throughout its entire
life-cycle. In this respect, an interesting and useful operation
between the designs of subsequent system versions is the
difference calculation. Whilst a number of algorithms and tools
are available for detecting structural changes, the visualization
of differences is often based on solutions where the opportunity
to harness the power of generic modeling platforms has far been
largely missed.
In this paper, we present a metamodel independent
approach to the representation of model differences which is
agnostic of the calculation method. Given two models being
differenced which conform to a metamodel, their difference is
conforming to another metamodel derived from the former by an
automated transformation. Interestingly, difference models are
first-class artifacts which in turn induce other transformations,
such that they can be applied to one of the differenced models to
automatically obtain the other one. Finally, difference models
can be composed both sequentially and in parallel giving place to
a rigorous base for model versioning and evolution.