metamodels

Metamodels are relatively easy to understand; they are similar to an entity-relationship model.

Metamodels (also known as meta-metadata) define the structure and semantics of metadata.

XMI does not specify an XML vocabulary, but rather an algorithm that generates vocabularies for metamodels.

Unfortunately, making life easy for the tool developer is not a high priority when metamodels are captured.

Capturing metamodels is not a trivial task and requires a fair amount of skill and experience.

In transformation authoring, UML metamodels are not automatically added to model-to-model mappings.

Designing tooling friendly metamodels is a skill acquired from experience.

Metamodels are self-describing, using DSL to capture the metamodel (domain) for the DSL.

He then links linguistic metamodels to the generation of software artifacts.

Metamodels fit well with the Model-Driven Architecture approach.

A bottom-up approach typically yields tool-unfriendly metamodels.

SOAD enhances existing metamodels and templates, 8, 11 specifically by distinguishing decisions required from decisions made.

Metadata and metamodels, in many products, have their own proprietary format. This is especially true for content management.

For example, the MDT project contains implementations (as metamodels) of UML2, XSD, and OCL.

SCA is based on two main metamodels 11