[Moose-dev] Re: Fwd: Re: Moose for SAS

I was discussing with Usman yesterday about these emails to the list that are also documentation artefacts. It would be nice to have a mean to flag such emails (manually) so that they can form collectively some documentation of Moose that would be easier to search in than the entire mailing list archive.

nicolas De: "Simon Denier" &lt;simon.denier(a)gmail.com&gt; À: "Moose-related development" &lt;moose-dev(a)iam.unibe.ch&gt; Envoyé: Mardi 7 Juin 2011 09:40:55 Objet: [Moose-dev] Fwd: Re: Moose for SAS There was some questions last week about extending the Famix metamodel. I just forward the following guide I wrote last year. It should be formatted and put online too. Begin forwarded message: From: Simon Denier &lt;Simon.Denier(a)inria.fr&gt; Date: 24 juin 2010 18:21:34 HAEC To: Related to the development of Moose and other related tools &lt;moose-dev(a)iam.unibe.ch&gt; Cc: Simon Denier &lt;Simon.Denier(a)inria.fr&gt; Subject: Re: [Moose-dev] Re: Moose for SAS Hi Ross It's true that the metamodeling tools in Moose seem crude compared to what exist elsewhere, but that's because we spend much more time using metamodels in new tools than building metamodels :) Here is the procedure when you need to define a completely new metamodel. You can still make mistake when defining the metamodel but it eliminates most redundancy. Once you have defined your metamodel, a set of lint rules can be run to check some aspects of the metamodel (see below) The essential pragma documentation is here (should be integrated in the book) http://code.google.com/p/moose-technology/wiki/FameMetaDescriptions Also, a good rule of thumb is to have MooseEntity as root instead of Object, it facilitates integration with Moose tools. 1) Metamodel declaration For the example below: - Create class RPGDragon from a class browser - add (class-side) RPGDragon class>>annotation <MSEClass: #Dragon super: #Object> <package: #RPG> Notice I just define the method with pragmas, I don't add any code in the body for now. For each attribute, I need to define the accessor (the getter, not the setter): - define RPGDragon>>hoard <MSEProperty: #hoard type: #RPGTreasure opposite: #keeper><multivalued> (same thing, method decl + pragma, no code) No need to add the initialize, it will be defined by the generator. 2) To generate the implementation, do: MooseModel generateClassesFrom: {RPGDragon. RPGHero. RPGWall} "collection of classes defining the metamodel" It should open a preview window, where you can see which method will be defined/overridden by the generator. You can always tap Cmd-x to remove the selected definition (in case you are doing some incremental metamodel definition). You can repeat the generation step as much as you want, provided you understand it will overwrite existing methods. It works like a charm if you are doing your own metamodel. If you need to extend (as in class extension, not the Java extend for inheritance) some existing Famix classes with new attributes, you should be a bit more careful. Actually, when I need to extend an existing metamodel with a few attributes, I just define the attributes directly in the Smalltalk way (with pragmas AND method body). It's fast to do. 3) optionally, check that your metamodel is correct with lint rules (especially soundness of opposite relationships): can be done from the meta browser... On 16 juin 2010, at 22:36, Ross Boylan wrote: On Wed, 2010-06-16 at 22:14 +0200, Tudor Girba wrote: Hi Ross, On 16 Jun 2010, at 21:17, Ross Boylan wrote: On Wed, 2010-06-16 at 09:37 +0200, Tudor Girba wrote: As mentioned before, there is no support for graphical support for writing MSE files. The main reason here is that Smalltalk already provides a good enough solution for quickly building classes and methods, and annotating them is a practical solution. I gather there is no facility to generate the smalltalk out of the method annotations. Is there any reason, in principle, that it couldn't be done? Well, if you have the method annotations, you already have the Smalltalk code :). Consider RPGDragon>>hoard <MSEProperty: #hoard type: #RPGTreasure opposite: #keeper> <multivalued> ^hoard ^hoard is smalltalk code. You also have to create the instance variable, define hoard: aTreasure hoard value: aTreasure and initialize super initialize. hoard := FMMultivalueLink on: self opposite: #keeper:. killedBy := FMMultiMultivalueLink on: self opposite: #kills. It's the redundancy, along with the possibilities for error that would put the smalltalk and annotation out of sync, that concerns me (and that I'm trying to avoid). I do not in some other classes the names in the annotations and the names of the methods and variables are not quite in sync, so maybe this is a feature. Ross Right now, the only possibility is to generate Smalltalk code out of MSE code that represents your meta-model. This is like the famixCore string that you saw in the image. Cheers, Doru -- www.tudorgirba.com "Not knowing how to do something is not an argument for how it cannot be done." _______________________________________________ Moose-dev mailing list Moose-dev(a)iam.unibe.ch https://www.iam.unibe.ch/mailman/listinfo/moose-dev _______________________________________________ Moose-dev mailing list Moose-dev(a)iam.unibe.ch https://www.iam.unibe.ch/mailman/listinfo/moose-dev -- Simon -- Simon Denier _______________________________________________ Moose-dev mailing list Moose-dev(a)iam.unibe.ch https://www.iam.unibe.ch/mailman/listinfo/moose-dev _______________________________________________ Moose-dev mailing list Moose-dev(a)iam.unibe.ch https://www.iam.unibe.ch/mailman/listinfo/moose-dev