M. Wimmer, A. Kusel, J. Schönböck, T. Reiter, W. Retschitzegger, W. Schwinger: Lets's Play the Token Game -- Model Transformations Powered By Transformation Nets, International Workshop on Petri Nets and Software Engineering, Paris, France; 22.06.2009 - 23.06.2009; in: Proc. of the International Workshop on Petri Nets and Software Engineering PNSE'09, Université Paris 13, 2009, pages 35 - 50. pdf
Model-Driven Engineering (MDE) is a software engineering paradigm using abstract models to describe systems which are then systematically transformed to concrete implementations. Since model transformations are crucial for the success of MDE, several kinds of dedicated transformation languages have been proposed. Hybrid languages combine the statefulness and the ability to define control flow of imperative approaches with the raised level of abstraction of declarative ones. However the low-level engines employed to execute transformations lead to an impedance mismatch between specification and execution of model transformations which hampers debugging. Additionally, current approaches lack of appropriate reuse mechanisms for resolving recurring transformation problems. Therefore, we propose a process-oriented specification and execution of model transformations based on Transformation Nets, a variant of Colored Petri Nets (CPNs). By using Transformation Nets, the benefits of imperative and declarative approaches are combined, not only for the specification of model transformations, but also for their execution by using CPNs themselves as a transformation engine. Furthermore, Transformation Nets introduce a novel notation for implementing transformation logic within transitions to foster reuse.