On integrating graphical and textual editors for a UML profile based domain specific language: an industrial experience

Abstract

Domain Specific Languages (DSLs) are an established means of reducing the gap between problem and solution domains. DSLs increase productivity and improve quality as they can be tailored to exactly fit the needs of the problem to be solved. A DSL can have multiple notations including textual and graphical notations. In some cases, one of these notations for a DSL is enough but there are many cases where a single notation does not suffice and there is a demand to support multiple notations for the same DSL. UML profile is one of several approaches used to define a DSL, however most UML tools only come with graphical editors. In this paper, we present our approach and industrial experience on integrating textual and graphical editors for a UML profile-based DSL. This work was conducted as part of an explorative study at Ericsson. The main aim of the study was to investigate how to introduce a textual editor to an already existing UML profile-based DSL in an Eclipse environment. We report on the challenges of integrating textual and graphical editors for UML profile-based DSLs in practice, our chosen approach, specific constraints and requirements of the study.