Performance in Model Transformations: A Comparison Between ATL and QVT

Marcel van Amstel, Steven Bosems, Luis Ferreira Pires, Ivan Kurtev. Performance in Model Transformations: A Comparison Between ATL and QVT . In Jordi Cabot, Eelco Visser, editors, Theory and Practice of Model Transformations, Fourth International Conference, ICMT 2011, Zurich, Switzerland, June 27-28, 2011. Proceedings. Volume 6707 of Lecture Notes in Computer Science, pages 198-212, Springer, 2011.

Abstract

Model transformations are increasingly incorporated in software development processes. However, as the system grows performance tends to degrade. We study the factors that impact the performance during the execution of model transformations. We present a performance analysis of three model transformation language engines (ATL, QVT Operational Mappings and QVT Relations) based on various implementations of a single transformation problem and various sizes of the input models. Metric values are extracted from the transformations and input models to analyze what characteristics of both influence the performance of a transformation execution. The results of this anlysis enable the use of metrics to estimate beforehand the performance of a transformation and to choose among implementation alternatives to achieve the best performance.