© 2006 MetaCase 1 Agile Development with Domain-Specific Languages 19 th June 2006 Aali Alikoski,...

© 2006 MetaCase 1

Agile Development withDomain-Specific Languages

19th June 2006Aali Alikoski, Microsoft

Steven Kelly, MetaCase

© 2006 MetaCase 2

DSM with full code generation: the ultimate refactoring tool?

19th June 2006Aali Alikoski, Microsoft

Steven Kelly, MetaCase

© 2006 MetaCase 3

Schedule

Part I: What’s it all about? 14:00-14:15 Welcome & Introductions 14:15-14:45 Agile & DSM introduction & definitions 14:45-15:05 Software Factories & DSL Tools demo 15:05-15:15 MetaEdit+ demo

Part II: OK, I can do that! 15:15-15:30 Interactive TV Applications Domain 15:30-16:00 Coffee 16:00-17:00 You build your first DSM Language! 17:00-17:20 Final topics, Conclusions & Wrap-up

© 2006 MetaCase 4

Contents

Introduction What is domain-specific modeling (DSM) DSM examples & case studies Benefits of DSM How to implement domain-specific methods

– Modeling language– Generators

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How has productivity improved?

"The entire history of software engineering is that of the rise in levels of abstraction"

Grady Booch

New programming languages have not increased productivity

UML and visualization of code have not increased productivity

Abstraction of development can be raised above current level...

... and still generate full production code (and ignore it!)

*Software Productivity Research & Capers Jones, 2002

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DomainIdea

FinishedProduct

Solv

e p

roble

m in d

om

ain

term

sAssembler

Map to code, implement

UML ModelMap to UML

Generate,Add bodies

ComponentsModelin DSM

language

Generate callsto components

No need

to map!

CodeMap to code, implement

Modeling domain vs. modeling code

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What is domain-specific modeling

Captures domain knowledge (as opposed to code)– Raise abstraction from implementation world– Uses domain abstractions – Applies domain concepts and rules as modeling constructs– Narrow down the design space– Focus on single range of products

Lets developers design products using domain terms Apply familiar terminology Solve the RIGHT problems Solve problems only ONCE!

– directly in models, not again by writing code, round-trip etc.

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DomainIdea

FinishedProduct

Example: Digital wristwatch


language


No need

to map!

Solv

e p

roble

m in d

om

ain

term

sAssembler


UML ModelMap to UML

Generate,Add bodies


Product family– Models: His, Hers, Sport, Kid, Traveler, Diver…

Reusable component applications– Time, Alarm, Timer, WorldTime, StopWatch…

Hide complexity from modeler– Model-View-Controller separation– Separate thread for real-time display

Implementation in Java

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Case1: Insurance products & eCommerce Developing portal for insurances and financial

products Need to specify several hundred financial products Insurance experts specify visually insurance

products and generate code to the portal Comparison to writing directly Java after first 30

products = DSM at least 3 times faster

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Telecom services and their configuration Users visually specify new configuration models Generate various configurations from single design

– One model– Multiple outputs

Reusable component library Code generators refers to external files

Case2: Configuration of services

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Web application for e-commerce; product catalogs, events, press releases, and discussion forums

Core components and basic functionality available for reuse and customization needs

Each customer can specify own data content, behavioral logic and user interface

Code generators produce running Java applets, stylesheets and xml files

Generation of documents for both internal and external use

Case3: Web application

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Case4: VoiceMenu for micro controller Voice VoiceMenu for micro controller based home

automation system Remote control for lights, heating, alarms, etc. VoiceMenus are programmed straight to the device

with assembler-like language (8bit) Modeling language to define overall menu structure

and individual voice prompts Code generator produces 100% of menu

implementation Development time for a feature from a week to a

day!

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Case5: Enterprise apps in Smartphone Symbian/Series 60 for enterprise application

development Platform provides basic services Modeling language to define application logic using

basic widgets and services Code generator produces 100% of implementation Complete chain from model to running app Libraries possible to integrate

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Specify services than can run safely on Internet telephony servers

Designs can be considered valid and well-formed already at the design stage

Language use concepts familiar to the service developer– Switches, Locations and Signaling actions etc.

Generate full service from the model There are also cases where the language has been

extended to cover also domain extensions and new requirements e.g. for Java and VoiceXML.

Case6: Call Processing Language

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Nokia; Mobile Phone product line Bell Labs / AT&T / Lucent; 5ESS telecommunications

switch, Honeywell; embedded software architectures ORGA; SIM toolkit & JavaCard Pecunet; B2B E-Business: insurance LexiFi; mlFi, financial contracts DuPont; Activity Modeling NASA; Architecture Definition Language NASA ASE group; Amphion NASA JPL; embedded measurement systems USAF; Message Transformation and Validation … See more at www.DSMForum.org

Let’s look at industry experience:Some reported cases

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DSM Case Study: Nokia

* MetaCase, Nokia case study, 1999

DSM and related code generators for mobile phone*

Order of magnitude productivity gains (10x)– "A module that was expected to take 2 weeks... took 1

day from the start of the design to the finished product"

Focus on designs rather than code– Domain-oriented method allows developers to

concentrate on the required functionality Training time was reduced significantly

– “Earlier it took 6 months for a new worker to become productive. Now it takes 2 weeks”

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DSM Case Study: Nokia Tetra

DSM for Tetra terminals*– Earlier development was based on SDL and manual

coding

Faster development– ”MetaEdit+ has clearly boosted development speed due

to its capabilities for supporting extensive reuse and managing variation”

Quality of product code improved– ”DSM rules out errors, eliminating them already in the

design stage” Hiding complexity made development easier

– ”Developers with less C code experience can effectively develop features using DSM”

* MetaCase, Nokia case study, 2003

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DSM Case Study: Lucent

* D. Weiss et al, Software Product-Line Engineering, Addison-Wesley

5ESS Phone Switch and several DSMs *

Reported productivity improvements of about 3-10 times– From several cases– From several DSMs

Shorter intervals between product releases Improved consistency across product variants

– “DSM should always be used if more than 3 variants”

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DSM Case Study: USAF

Development of message translation and validation system (MTV)*

Declarative domain-specific language + code generators and customization of components

Compared DSM against component-based development: DSM is 3 times faster than code components DSM leads to fewer errors: about 50% less DSM gives “superior flexibility in handling a greater

range of specifications” than components

* Kieburtz et al., A Software Engineering Experiment in Software Component Generation, ICSE’96

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Why Domain-Specific Modeling?

Development becomes faster– less to ”write” as abstraction is raised– no need to model and then code too

Development becomes easier– lower level details hidden (cf. Assembler to C)– models easier to read, understand and remember

Expertise can be leveraged– domain to code mappings made only once –

by the expert developer Routine tasks minimized

– Developers can focus on the problem, not its implementation details

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Why it is possible (now)?

Need to fit only one company’s requirements! Modeling is Domain-Specific

– Works for one application domain, framework, product family etc.

– Language has concepts people already are familiar with– Models used to solve the problem, not to visualize code

Generator is Domain-Specific– Generate just the code needed from models

• Efficient full code• No manual coding afterwards• No reason for round-tripping

– Generator links to existing primitives/components/platform services etc.

– Can produce Assembler, 3GL, object-oriented, XML, etc.

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Where to apply?

Repetitive development tasks– Large portion of the work similar to earlier products (or

several products made in parallel) Domain expertise needed

– Non-programmers can participate

These normally include:– Product Family– Platform-based development– Configuration– Business rule definitions– Embedded devices

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DomainIdea

FinishedProduct

Solv

e p

roble

m in d

om

ain

term

sAssembler


UML ModelMap to UML

Generate,Add bodies



language


No need

to map!

Modeling domain vs. modeling code

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DomainIdea

FinishedProduct


language


Easy!

Expert(few)

Normal(many)

Done a few times before!

Codegenerator

DSMlanguage

Domainframework

How to implement DSM

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Tool support is essential

Building DSM must be fast, cheap and easy A variety of tools available

– Lex & Yacc for textual DSLs– Customizable IDE (e.g. Eclipse, Visual Studio)– MetaCASE tools (e.g. MetaEdit+)

5 ways to get the tools1. Write own tool from scratch2. Write own tool based on frameworks3. Metamodel, generate tool skeleton, add code4. Metamodel, generate full tool5. Integrated modeling and metamodeling environment

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Schedule

Part I: What’s it all about? 14:00-14:15 Welcome & Introductions 14:15-14:45 Agile & DSM introduction & definitions 14:45-15:15 Software Factories & DSL Tools demo 15:05-15:15 MetaEdit+ demo

Part II: OK, I can do that! 15:15-15:30 Interactive TV Applications Domain 15:30-16:00 Coffee 16:00-17:00 You build your first DSM Language! 17:00-17:20 Final topics, Conclusions & Wrap-up

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Difference from MDA?

Same idea on using models and transformations, but... DSM is always full code direct from models

– Not OMG MDA (elaborationist)– Simpler in terms of versioning and management

DSM = domain-specific language and generators– MDA is UML-based*

No reverse- or round-trip engineering in DSM– We want a real lift in the level of abstraction– How often do you reverse engineer assembler to code?

Separation of concerns– You are the experts in your domain and code (not the

vendor) DSM is agile: as much or as little as you want

* official definition, www.omg.org

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How to implement DSM Expert developer defines the DSM, others apply it

– expert always defines the domain better than less-experienced developers

– Always better to define the concepts and mappings once, rather than let everyone do it all the time

Identify your current concepts and rules– Formalize them

– No need to learn new semantics and notations– Models easier to read, remember and check

Map to implementation framework– Generators:

– Call component interfaces– Fill template code– Map to different target platforms

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Implementation covers

Initial: – Metamodel: concepts and rules of the language– Notation: symbols and their behavior– Tool behavior: dialogs, icons, browsers etc.– Generators: for code, checking, inspection, docs etc.– Language help– Connectivity with other tools

Continuously:– DSM language or tool sharing– DSM updates (of metamodel, rules, notation)– Generator updates– Model updates based on changed language– …often in multi developer settings

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Concepts Symbols

GeneratorsRules1 2 3 4

Steps for implementing DSM

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1. Design domain concepts

Map modeling concepts accurately to domain concepts– What information is stored with each concept

Concentrate on semantics!– Add extensions for software production later

Design to make reuse precise and easy

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Concepts Graph Object Property Role Relationship

Rules, e.g. Max 1 Min 1 Unique, etc

Ports for connections Links between models Reuse rules

Metamodeling with GOPRR

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2. Define domain rules

Define semantics and rules as they exist in the domain

Examples of rule types:– Links between concepts– Layering abstractions – Reuse rules– etc.

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3. Draw symbols (notation)

Define symbols illustrating as well as possible the corresponding domain concept’s natural ”visualization” – e.g. end-user’s notation, customer’s notation

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4. Implement generators

Reporting language fast and easy to use: no programming Cost of developing generators defrayed over a few users Write report definitions based on domain concepts:

– Component use – Configuration data– Code generation – Testing and analysis– Automated build – Reports that make reports– Documentation – Review

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Apply in software production

Develop applications using the DSM infrastructure – 5-10x faster! Cf. NASA, Nokia, Lucent, USAF, Pecunet

Continuously evolve your DSM– Domain & platforms evolve– Models update automatically

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Code generator principle

Generator translates the models into a required output1. Crawl through the models

navigation according to metamodel (modeling concepts and rules available)

2. Extract required information access data in models

3. Translate it as the code translation semantics and rules

4. Using some output format possibility to define output format

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Python for smartphones

Symbian/Series 60 application development Platform provides basic services Modeling language to define application logic using basic

widgets and services Code generator produces 100% of implementation Complete chain from model to running app Libraries possible to integrate

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Generator definition

Function calls – Series 60/Python

def Note3_2227(): appuifw.note(u"Registration made", 'conf') return Stop3_983

def Note3_6109(): appuifw.note(u“Registration cancelled", ‘info') return Stop3_983

def Note3_2543(): appuifw.note(u“Conference registration: Welcome", ‘info') return Popup_menu3_2520

def Stop3_983():# This applications stops here return appuifw.app.set_exit

...

Generator output

Report '_Note'/* Produces Note code */'def '; type;oid; '():'; ‘ appuifw.note(u"';:Text or code; '", '''; :Note type; ''')'; subreport; '_next element'; run;endreport

Report '_next element'/* reports next flow element*/do ~From>Flow { do :Function used {' '; :Function name;} '('; :Code; ')'; do ~To.() {‘ return '; subreport; '_Internal name'; run;}}endreport

Generator definition

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C for wristwatch applications

Typical for embedded devices – e.g. medical devices, diving instruments, car infotainment

Modeling language to define application logic using basic domain concepts, using extended state machine

Uses services from the domain-specific platform – e.g. in case of digital wristwatch: time, display, button etc

Code generator produces 100% of variant implementation

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Switch-Case – Watch/C C from the extended state machine; Watch

typedef enum { Start, EditHours, EditMinutes, Show, Stop } States;typedef enum { None, Mode, Set } Buttons;

Generator ouput

int state = Start;int button = None; /* pseudo-button for following buttonless transitions */

void runWatch(){ while (state != Stop) { handleEvent(); button = getButton(); /* waits for and returns next button press */ }}

void handleEvent(){ switch (state) { case EditHours: switch (button) { case Set: state = EditHours; increment_and_roll(tempOffset, HOURS, UP); break; case Mode: icon (editHours, OFF); icon (editMinutes, ON); state = EditMinutes; break; default: break; }

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How to design a generator, 1

Make generation process complete, target 100% generation output– Never modify the generated code

• want to change assembler after compiling? – Correct the generator or framework instead

• no round-trip-related problems• do you want to edit Assembler and keep C in synch with it?

Use modeling languages that provide required support for generation

Use modeling languages to raise abstraction• Don’t visualize code• Generating a class from a diagram to a class in code helps very little,

if not at all…

Put domain rules up-front to the language• Generator definition becomes easier when the input is correct• Models should be impossible to draw wrongly for generation

(difficult with universal languages, e.g. in UML OCL is written freely to model elements)

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How to design a generator, 2

Make generator for your situation only– Trying to make general purpose generator often fails

Keep generator as simple as possible– Raise variation to the specification language– Push low-level common implementation issues to the

framework Keep generator modular to reflect changes

– e.g. structure generator based on modeling concepts– e.g. use common generator subroutines for common needs

Try to generate as little code as possible– Glue code only

Support code already made– Best to put to the framework

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Generator degrees of freedom

Different levels of generators: modular / tree structure1. Generator per file to be generated2. Generator per section in a file3. Generator per metamodel element

Different Model of Computation implementations– Sequential– Function calls– Switch-case structure– Transition tables, etc.

Different levels of code that generated code can call or subclass– Other generated code– Domain framework components– Platform functions

Different generation options for different runs– Different top-level generators– Top-level graph for generation options

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Summary

Domain-specific modeling radically improves productivity (5-10x)

DSM leverages expert developers’ abilities to empower other developers in a team

MetaCASE tools provide a cost-effective way to create DSM infrastructure

Building DSM is great fun– The ultimate refactoring!

More info:– www.dsmforum.org– www.metacase.com– www.microsoft.com

© 2006 MetaCase 58

For question and comments, please contact us

MetaCaseYlistönmäentie 31

FI-40500 Jyväskylä, FinlandPhone +358 14 4451 400, Fax +358 14 4451 405

www.metacase.com

Thank you!

© 2006 MetaCase 1 Agile Development with Domain-Specific Languages 19 th June 2006 Aali Alikoski,...

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