[News.eclipse.technology.mddi] Re: Literature

["Jean Bezivin" <bezivin@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

"Albert Deinbeck" <albert.deinbeck@xxxxxx> a écrit dans le message de
news:d4ikj5$pc$1@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

> This project and the concept of mda sounds fascinating and I would like to
> delve deeper into the matter, perhaps contribute. However, browsing
through
> papers and posts I recognized that I lack knowledge about mda.
> Can you point me to books and online resources about mda, mod, atl?
> I'm java developer and use uml as well, so skip the basics, please...

Albert:

I suppose in other posts you got answers on MDA or more generally on the
various MDE solutions like software factories, etc.

This is just to answer your specific question about ATL.

ATL is a model transformation language available in the Eclipse GMT project.
GMT is soon going to be reorganized as a set of sub-projects, ATL being just
one of them.

When discussing ATL, it is important to distinguish the language, the
execution engine and the integrated development environment (IDE). Each of
these may evolve independently. Furthermore ATL is now included in a larger
framework (AMMA: ATLAS Model Management Architecture) where some other tools
will also be available in 2005/2006 like the AMW model weaver, the AM3
megamodel manager and the ATP technical space projectors. Most of the AMMA
contributions will be made available through the Eclipse GMT project.

ATL is a QVT-like language. QVT is an OMG recommendation for model-based or
more precisely XMI-based languages that should be soon accepted by OMG.

QVT is presently proposing twelve (12) levels of compliance for any
transformation language. It is too early to define exactly which level of
compliance will be reached by a combination of AMMA tools, including ATL.
However this QVT-compliance is less a priority for ATL than answering the
real needs of its user community.  ATL aims to achieve the best compromise
between practicality and conformance to the MOF/QVT 1.0 OMG recommendation
as issued by OMG (document ad/2005-03-02). This is why ATL is presently
based on OCL although in the future we may see versions of ATL supporting
other model navigation formalisms different from OCL. It is also likely that
ATL will provide some additional facilities not mentioned in the  QVT
compliance and definition document ad/2005-03-02.

The set of documentation for ATL is still in its infancy, but is steadily
growing. You may find the available documents at:
http://dev.eclipse.org/viewcvs/indextech.cgi/~checkout~/gmt-home/doc/atl/index.html

Being a research institution, INRIA intends to use ATL as an evolving
prototype to experiment innovative ideas in the field of model
transformation and more generally in the field of model management.

I hope this answers your present questions about ATL. Don't hesitate to ask
more precisions.

Jean