Composing domain-specific design environments

TLDR

Domain‑specific IDEs capture specifications as domain models, automate analysis, simulate behavior, and auto‑generate components, yet their high development cost limits adoption in narrow engineering fields. The authors propose Model‑Integrated Computing (MIC) as a rapid, cost‑effective method for composing domain‑specific design environments, especially for specialized computer‑based systems or single projects. MIC employs a metalevel architecture to define domain‑specific modeling languages and integrity constraints, and its toolset was applied in a process‑industry environment. Using MIC in that environment produced substantial reductions in development and maintenance costs.

Abstract

Domain-specific integrated development environments can help capture specifications in the form of domain models. These tools support the design process by automating analysis and simulating essential system behavior. In addition, they can automatically generate, configure, and integrate target application components. The high cost of developing domain-specific, integrated modeling, analysis, and application-generation environments prevents their penetration into narrower engineering fields that have limited user bases. Model-integrated computing (MIC), an approach to model-based engineering that helps compose domain-specific design environments rapidly and cost effectively, is particularly relevant for specialized computer-based systems domains-perhaps even single projects. The authors describe how MIC provides a way to compose such environments cost effectively and rapidly by using a metalevel architecture to specify the domain-specific modeling language and integrity constraints. They also discuss the toolset that implements MIC and describe a practical application in which using the technology in a tool environment for the process industry led to significant reductions in development and maintenance costs.