[news.eclipse.technology.ldt] Role of EMF in LDT

["Philipp W. Kutter, A4M AG" <philipp@xxxxxxxxxx>]

Dear all.

Is the focus of this project to make the existing Java JDT Datamodel
easier reusable for Java like languages?

In this case, the project name should probably be "JDT Reusability"
which is a very interesting topic.

If the focus is about "language development" in general, the first 
question is how are the abstact syntax trees of the languages 
represented. Some people may hint to XML, but given the ease of mapping 
XML to UML and back, UML seems to me the first class choice for this.


Wouln't then EMF be the natural choice for supporting any data model for 
abstract syntax defined via UML?


By the way, this would not exclude the first goal, e.g. making the Java 
JDT Datamodel easier reusable for Java like languages. One could
do this by mapping the existing, highly optimized JDT Datamodel to some
EMF/UML defined model for some language. The design of such a pattern,
where the regular, normalized EMF generated implementation is
synchronized with an existing, highly tuned and optimized data-model
like the JDT data model. To do this design would be a highly
interesting task. Another topic would be to generate JDT like code from
EMF models.


I hope this is not completly out of scope, but we as a tiny company
are using EMF for all abstract syntax trees in a tool that generates a 
language implementation from its specification. It may be an
interesting choice for the here proposed Language Development Toolkit
as well.

Other tools that are built in this way are the new Rational Modeler, or
a number of Websphere products. I have only worked with the Modeler.

Best Regards,

Philipp Kutter
www.montages.com