Towards general purpose, high level, software languages

Abstract

A highly significant benefit of MDA is that it raises the level of abstraction at which the soft-ware developer is able to work. However, the languages available to the developer have not seen much change in the last decade. Modeling languages offer high level concepts, but the pre-dominant modeling language (UML) offers too little expressive power to be able to specify a system completely. Meanwhile, the level of abstraction of most programming language con-cepts is the same as 10 to 15 years ago. Although transformation tools may to some extent bridge the gap between modeling and programming languages, in practice the developer still needs to do both modeling and programming. This means switching between the two levels of abstractions, which is difficult for most people. We argue that a general purpose, high level, software language is necessary to get MDA adopted. This language will enable any developer to focus on the problem at hand while the supporting tools - transformation tools or generators- take care of the nitty gritty details. This paper introduces an early version of such a language, which brings together a number of powerful concepts from various sources: UML, OCL, design patterns, existing programming languages, and eventually aspect-oriented languages. © Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2005.