A metamodel for the notation of graphical modeling languages

Abstract

In order to define a graphical modeling language, it is necessary to define the graphical notation of the language in the process of metamodeling. So the defining of the no- tation has become one of the essential functions in meta- modeling tools. This paper proposed the Notation Defini- tion Metamodel (NDM) for metamodeling tools. NDM is used to define the graphical notation. It consists of three parts: basic figures and layouts, location relations and syn- tax bridges. NDM has been implemented in PKU Meta- Model Tool (PkuMMT). The paper made a case study to illustrate the feasibility of NDM. Besides, a comparison between PKU MMT and some metamodeling tools is pre- sented to show the capability and advantages of NDM.