Guido Wachsmuth. Metamodel Adaptation and Model Co-adaptation. In Erik Ernst, editor, ECOOP 2007 - Object-Oriented Programming, 21st European Conference, Berlin, Germany, July 30 - August 3, 2007, Proceedings. Volume 4609 of Lecture Notes in Computer Science, pages 600-624, Springer, 2007. [doi]
Like other software artefacts, metamodels evolve over time. We propose a transformational approach to assist metamodel evolution by stepwise adaptation. In the first part of the paper, we adopt ideas from grammar engineering to define several semantics- and instance preservation properties in terms of metamodel relations. This part is not restricted to any metamodel formalism. In the second part, we present a library of QVT Relations for the stepwise adaptation of MOF compliant metamodels. Transformations from this library separate preservation properties. We distinguish three kinds of adaptation according to these properties; namely refactoring, construction, and destruction. Co-adaptation of model instances is discussed with respect to of instance-preservation. In most cases, co-adaptation is achieved automatically. Finally, we point out applications in the areas of metamodel design, implementation, refinement, maintenance, and recovery.