Domain-Specific Model Editors with Model Completion

Today, integrated development environments such as

Eclipse

allow users to write programs quickly by presenting a set of recommendations for code completion. Similarly, word processing tools such as

Microsoft Word

present corrections for grammatical errors in sentences. Both of these existing systems use a set of constraints expressed in the form of a grammar to restrict/correct the user. Taking this idea further, in this paper we present an integrated software system capable of generating recommendations for model completion of partial models built in arbitrary domain specific model editors. We synthesize the model editor equipped with automatic completion from a modelling language’s declarative specification consisting of a meta-model and constraints on it along with a visual syntax. The automatic completion feature is powered by a

Prolog

engine whose input is a constraint logic program derived from some models. The input logic program is obtained by a model transformation from models in multiple languages: the meta-model (as a class diagram), constraints on it (as constraint logic clauses), and a partial model (in the domain specific language). The

Prolog

engine solves the generated logic program and the solution(if there is one) is returned to the model editor as a set of recommendations for properties of the partial model. We incorporate automatic completion in the generative tool

AToM

3

and use

SWI-Prolog

for constraint representation and satisfaction. We present examples using an illustrative visual language of

Finite State Machines

.