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The Art of Bootstrapping

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Book cover Model-Driven Engineering and Software Development (MODELSWARD 2019)

Part of the book series: Communications in Computer and Information Science ((CCIS,volume 1161))

Abstract

Language workbenches are used to define languages using appropriate meta-languages. Meta-languages are also just languages and can, therefore, be defined using themselves. The process is called bootstrapping and is often difficult to achieve.

This paper compares four different bootstrapping solutions. The EMF environment and the Meta-Programming System (MPS) use a compiled bootstrapping for their own definition. The platforms LanguageLab and DMLA are using interpreted bootstrapping. This paper compares these kinds of bootstrapping and relates them to the definition of instantiation. Besides the structural aspects of the bootstraps, the dynamism is also elaborated. It is shown how the bootstrap is related to the execution environment. Finally, the level of changeability is also discussed. It is shown that all approaches are quite similar and provide very flexible environments.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    There are also grammar-based language workbenches in addition to the metamodelling environments.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of ICT, University of Agder, Grimstad, Norway

    Andreas Prinz

  2. Department of Automation and Applied Informatics, Budapest University of Technology and Economics, Budapest, Hungary

    Gergely Mezei

Authors
  1. Andreas Prinz
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  2. Gergely Mezei
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Correspondence to Andreas Prinz .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Siège du Groupe ESEO, Angers, France

    Slimane Hammoudi

  2. University of Twente, Enschede, The Netherlands

    Luís Ferreira Pires

  3. Malina Software Corporation, Nepean, ON, Canada

    Bran Selić

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Prinz, A., Mezei, G. (2020). The Art of Bootstrapping. In: Hammoudi, S., Pires, L., Selić, B. (eds) Model-Driven Engineering and Software Development. MODELSWARD 2019. Communications in Computer and Information Science, vol 1161. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-37873-8_8

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-37873-8_8

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-030-37872-1

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-030-37873-8

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