A framework for Model Driven Production of Graphic Modeling Tools

A new tendency in software engineering is to use models in order to better structure software development processes. In order to model systems, we need modeling environments. These enrvironments should not impose to the software process their own concepts, but they must support the concepts related to the application domain targeted by these processes. Thus, the modeling environment must be adapted to user's domain instead of the user having to adapt himself to the environment. We propose in this paper an approach for designing graphic modeling environments tailored at the same time to the domain and to the wishes of the user. We also present a framework that implement this approach and its associated tools. These tools allow the automatic generation of the modeling environment on the basis of the models that define this environment. We use the separation of concerns and model driven engineering approach to implement this framework.

1. Introduction

Models have become a necessity in the world of computer science because the number of applications explodes and engineers seek to preserve knowledge related to these applications either to reproduce them using new technologies or to integrate them in more complex systems.