Computer automated multi-paradigm modelling: meta-modelling and graph transformation

Computer automated multi-paradigm modelling based on meta-modelling and graph transformation is presented. The syntax of a class of models of interest is graphically meta-modelled in an appropriate formalism such as entity-relationship diagrams. From this abstract syntax, augmented with concrete (visual) information, an interactive, visual modelling environment is generated. As the abstract syntax of all models is graph-like, graph rewriting is used to perform model transformation. Graph grammar models thus allow for model transformation specification. Graph rewriting provides a rigourous basis for specifying and analyzing model transformations such as simplification, simulation, and code generation. AToM/sup 3/, a tool for multi-formalism and meta-modelling, is introduced. Meta-modelling and graph transformation concepts are introduced through a simple reactive system example: a timed automata model of a traffic light. Meta-modelling, generating the visual modelling environment, and modelling transformations as graph grammars, as well as executing them, are performed in AToM/sup 3/. The model transformations include simulation, transformation into timed transition Petri nets, and code generation.