Notice: This Wiki is now read only and edits are no longer possible. Please see: https://gitlab.eclipse.org/eclipsefdn/helpdesk/-/wikis/Wiki-shutdown-plan for the plan.
MDT/MST
MST is an open source sub-project of the Model Development Tools (MDT) project to provide tooling for the development of MOF™-compliant metamodels and specifications based on them.
The goals of the MST project are to:
- leverage the CMOF (de)serialization support that was introduced in the UML2 project as part of the Ganymede release
- customize and/or extend the existing (or forthcoming) UML® editors (primarily for class and package/profile diagrams) to expose CMOF concepts which are missing in UML (like identifiers, namespace URIs, and XMI® tags)
- provide a mechanism for generating a specification document (or at least a decent boiler plate for one) directly from a metamodel using BIRT
- automate the mapping between a metamodel and its profile representation (if there is one)
- make use of the Eclipse Process Framework (EPF) to document and coordinate the specification development process
- provide a proof of concept for changes and/or extensions to EMF and/or UML2 to better support richer and evolving metamodels, as per the MOF Support for Semantic Structures RFP
The initial implementation focus will be on creation and serialization of metamodels (in CMOF XMI format), based on current MOF practices, by leveraging functionality from UML2 and Papyrus components of MDT. Meanwhile, a proof of concept will be done based on draft submissions for the MOF Support for Semantic Structures RFP and validated by the EMF and MDT communities at Eclipse. Longer term, the project team will look at leveraging BIRT and EPF to generate specification document and support specification creation/revision process(es).
In the future, the MST project may look at how innovations in the way metamodels are defined and/or structured could/should be repatriated back to EMF and/or UML2 projects. The MST project also hopes to provide greater assistance to specification authors by looking at leveraging advanced techniques for developing specification metamodels in conjunction with corresponding formalizations in OCL and lightweight formal specification languages. Finally, the project team would look toward having MST become the de facto tool for authoring specifications at the OMG (and possibly other open standards/specifications organizations).