<p>Object-oriented frameworks are currently widely used in software application development. Unfortunately, they are known to be generally difficult to use because of the difficulty in understanding the concepts and constraints in different frameworks. With the formalization of framework concepts and constraints in domain-specific modeling languages called framework-specific modeling languages (FSMLs), previous works have shown that round-trip engineering between models of applications using frameworks and the application code is possible to aid framework application development.</p> <p>Framework-specific modeling languages only capture, however, framework concepts and constraints and hence, lack the expressiveness of general-purpose modeling languages. For this reason, the complete code for an entire framework application cannot be generated from the model in the model editor using round-trip engineering, and the user would need to switch to the code editor to program the application logic code. Also, since models are only abstractions of code, implementation details in code may be missing in models. Although default implementation details can be used when generating code from a model, the generated code might require further customization by the user, which would also require switching to the code editor.</p> <p>To reduce the need for the user to switch between the model editor and the code editor and to reduce the need to customize the generated code, this thesis presents a model-guided approach to providing code assistance for framework application development directly in the code editor, where additional implementation details can also be obtained. An approach to building a context-sensitive code assistant that aids the user in the implementation of framework concepts with the consideration of framework constraints is described. A prototype has further been implemented and applied on two widely popular frameworks. The evaluation in this thesis analyzes and characterizes framework concepts and shows that the framework-based code assistant can reduce the need to customize the generated code in the code editor when compared to code generation from the model editor.</p>

Software development processes incorporate a variety of different artifacts (e.g., source code, models, and documentation). For multiple reasons the data that is contained in these artifacts does expose some degree of redundancy. Ensuring global consistency across artifacts during all stages in the development of software systems is required, because inconsistent artifacts can yield to failures. Ensuring consistency can be either achieved by reducing the amount of redundancy or by synchronizing the information that is shared across multiple artifacts. The discipline of software engineering that addresses these problems is called Round-Trip Engineering (RTE). In this thesis we present a conceptual framework for the design RTE systems. This framework delivers precise definitions for essential terms in the context of RTE and a process that can be used to address new RTE applications. The main idea of the framework is to partition models into parts that require synchronization - skeletons - and parts that do not - clothings. Once such a partitioning is obtained, the relations between the elements of the skeletons determine whether a deterministic RTE system can be built. If not, manual decisions may be required by developers. Based on this conceptual framework, two concrete approaches to RTE are presented. The first one - Backpropagation-based RTE - employs change translation, traceability and synchronization fitness functions to allow for synchronization of artifacts that are connected by non-injective transformations. The second approach - Role-based Tool Integration - provides means to avoid redundancy. To do so, a novel tool design method that relies on role modeling is presented. Tool integration is then performed by the creation of role bindings between role models. In addition to the two concrete approaches to RTE, which form the main contributions of the thesis, we investigate the creation of bridges between technical spaces. We consider these bridges as an essential prerequisite for performing logical synchronization between artifacts. Also, the feasibility of semantic web technologies is a subject of the thesis, because the specification of synchronization rules was identified as a blocking factor during our problem analysis. The thesis is complemented by an evaluation of all presented RTE approaches in different scenarios. Based on this evaluation, the strengths and weaknesses of the approaches are identified. Also, the practical feasibility of our approaches is confirmed w.r.t. the presented RTE applications.

Software development processes incorporate a variety of different artifacts (e.g., source code, models, and documentation). For multiple reasons the data that is contained in these artifacts does expose some degree of redundancy. Ensuring global consistency across artifacts during all stages in the development of software systems is required, because inconsistent artifacts can yield to failures. Ensuring consistency can be either achieved by reducing the amount of redundancy or by synchronizing the information that is shared across multiple artifacts. The discipline of software engineering that addresses these problems is called Round-Trip Engineering (RTE). In this thesis we present a conceptual framework for the design RTE systems. This framework delivers precise definitions for essential terms in the context of RTE and a process that can be used to address new RTE applications. The main idea of the framework is to partition models into parts that require synchronization - skeletons - and parts that do not - clothings. Once such a partitioning is obtained, the relations between the elements of the skeletons determine whether a deterministic RTE system can be built. If not, manual decisions may be required by developers. Based on this conceptual framework, two concrete approaches to RTE are presented. The first one - Backpropagation-based RTE - employs change translation, traceability and synchronization fitness functions to allow for synchronization of artifacts that are connected by non-injective transformations. The second approach - Role-based Tool Integration - provides means to avoid redundancy. To do so, a novel tool design method that relies on role modeling is presented. Tool integration is then performed by the creation of role bindings between role models. In addition to the two concrete approaches to RTE, which form the main contributions of the thesis, we investigate the creation of bridges between technical spaces. We consider these bridges as an essential prerequisite for performing logical synchronization between artifacts. Also, the feasibility of semantic web technologies is a subject of the thesis, because the specification of synchronization rules was identified as a blocking factor during our problem analysis. The thesis is complemented by an evaluation of all presented RTE approaches in different scenarios. Based on this evaluation, the strengths and weaknesses of the approaches are identified. Also, the practical feasibility of our approaches is confirmed w.r.t. the presented RTE applications.

Traditionelle 3D-Anwendungsentwicklung für VR/AR verläuft in heterogenen Entwicklerteams unstrukturiert, ad hoc und ist fehlerbehaftet. Der präsentierte Roundtrip3D Entwicklungsprozess ermöglicht die iterativ inkrementelle 3D-Anwendungsentwicklung, wechselseitig auf Softwaremodell- und Implementierungsebene. Modelle fördern das gemeinsame Verständnis unter Projektbeteiligten und sichern durch generierte Schnittstellen gleichzeitiges Programmieren und 3D-Modellieren zu. Das Roundtrip3D Werkzeug ermittelt Inkonsistenzen zwischen vervollständigten 3D-Inhalten und Quelltexten auch für verschiedene Plattformen und visualisiert sie auf abstrakter Modellebene. Die gesamte Implementierung wird nicht simultan, sondern nach codegetriebener Entwicklung kontrolliert mit Softwaremodellen abgeglichen. Inkremente aus aktualisierten Softwaremodellen fließen in dann wieder zueinander konsistente Quelltexte und 3D-Inhalte ein. Der Roundtrip3D Entwicklungsprozess vereint dauerhaft Vorteile codegetriebener mit modellgetriebener 3D-Anwendungsentwicklung und fördert strukturiertes Vorgehen im agilen Umfeld.

Made available in DSpace on 2016-06-02T19:06:10Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 5666.pdf: 3321258 bytes, checksum: c402c2fb8a619d07842991622736ea5a (MD5) Previous issue date: 2013-10-22 / Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais / Code generators play a key role in model-driven software development. They are responsible for transforming high-level assets (models) into implementation assets (code). Most generators are based on templates, which are pieces of text instrumented with code expansion elements. They receive an input and produce an output according to the template's programming. To build such template-based generators, the code of an existing implementation, already tested and validated, can be used as a reference, in a process known as code migration. With software evolution and the need for changes in the code generator, the templates start to differ from this reference implementation. In order to restablish the synchronization, additional effort is required. Tackling the challenge of keeping these assets synchronized (reference implementation and templates) is this dissertation's subject. The goal is to provide some automation to the code migration process, even if partial, in order to increase productivity in the maintenance of code generators. A mechanism was developed to make it possible to automatically reproduce changes that are performed in the reference implementation into one or more code generation templates. This mechanism was evaluated through an empirical study, yielding good performance in a controlled environment. This indicates that automation can help to reduce the effort in the maintenance of code generators in a model-driven development context. / Os geradores de código desempenham um papel fundamental no desenvolvimento de software orientado a modelos. São responsáveis pela transformação dos artefatos de alto nível de abstração (modelo) em elementos de implementação (código). Os tipos mais comuns de geradores são os baseados em template. São compostos fundamentalmente por elementos de expansão de código, que recebem uma entrada e a convertem em código, conforme a programação inserida nesses templates. O código de uma implementação já testado e validado pode servir de referência para a criação de templates, por meio de um processo conhecido como migração de código. Com a dinâmica da evolução do software e a necessidade de efetuar mudanças no gerador de código ocorre a perda de sincronismo entre os templates e esse código de referência, sendo necessário um esforço adicional para mantê-los sincronizados. O desafio de manter esses artefatos sincronizados constituiu o objetivo desta dissertação de mestrado, que proporcionou ganhos de produtividade, por meio de uma automação, ainda que parcial, desse processo. Nesse sentido, foi desenvolvido um mecanismo para propagar automaticamente as alterações introduzidas no código de referência para os templates, que reduziu o tempo e facilitou a manutenção de geradores de código que sofrem com o problema da perda de sincronismo nesses artefatos. O protótipo para a migração automática de código desenvolvido nesta dissertação foi submetido a um estudo empírico, atingindo um bom desempenho com a sua utilização na maioria das tarefas de migração de código avaliadas, o que indica que a automação pode ajudar a resolver o problema e reduzir o esforço de manutenção no desenvolvimento de software orientado a modelos.