FOSD Metamodels

Feature-oriented software development (FOSD) is a general paradigm for software generation, where a model of a product line is a tuple of 0-ary and 1-ary functions (program transformations). This page discusses a more abstract concept of models of product lines of product lines (PL**2) called metamodels, and product lines of product lines of product lines called meta-metamodels (PL**3), and further abstract concepts.

Metamodels

A metamodel is a model whose instances are models. A GenVoca model of a product line is a tuple whose components are features (0-ary or 1-ary functions). An extension (a.k.a. delta or refinement) of a model is a "meta-feature", which is a tuple of deltas that can modify an existing product line by modifying existing features and adding new features. As a simple example, consider GenVoca model M that contains three features a-c:

M = a, b, c /math>

Suppose meta-model MM contains three meta-features AAA-CCC, each of which
is a tuple with a single non-identity feature:

\beginMM = AAA, BBB, CCC \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ = [a,0,0 [0,b,0">[a,0,0.html" ;"title="[a,0,0">[a,0,0 [0,b,0 [0,0,c">,0,0">[a,0,0<_a>_[0,b,0.html" ;"title="[a,0,0.html" ;"title="[a,0,0">[a,0,0 [0,b,0">[a,0,0.html" ;"title="[a,0,0">[a,0,0 [0,b,0 [0,0,c]\end

where 0 is the null feature. Model M is constructed by adding the meta-features of MM, where + is the composition operation (see feature-oriented_programming, FOSD).

$\beginM = AAA + BBB + CCC \qquad \qquad \text \\\quad \ =$,0,0 ,b,0 ,0,c\qquad \text\\\quad \ = +0+0, 0+b+0, 0+0+c\text\\ \quad \ = ,b,c\qquad \qquad \qquad \qquad \qquad \ \text\end{array}

MM models a product line of product lines (PL**2). That is, different MM expressions correspond to GenVoca models of different product lines..

See also

* Feature-oriented programming – basic overview
* FOSD origami
* FOSD program cubes – multi-dimensional product lines
* FOSD feature interactions – other operations on features, including an operation designating feature interaction

References

Feature-oriented programming