CG2007 Programme Information

Session Title	UML vs. Domain-Specific Languages - a false dichotomy?
Session Type	Panel
Duration	75 minutes
Session Description	Standardised modelling languages, such as OMG UML and its younger cousins SysML and BPMN, emerged from the melee of competing modelling languages available in the mid-1990s. By creating widely used notations for common modelling concepts, these standard languages have made software modelling a mainstream activity supported by dozens of excellent tools. However, the Domain-Specific Language movement has a long and honourable tradition, recently given renewed impetus by Microsoft's support for DSLs in its Visual Studio tool set. DSL advocates argue that designing a modelling language specifically for a particular application domain allows clearer and more precise models than using a standard language. So who is right? When do the benefits of bespoke domain languages outweigh the advantages of using universally understood notations? Are the two approaches really in competition, or can they co-exist? Our panel of DSL and UML experts will lead the debate.
Session Leaders	The panel will be moderated by Andrew Watson, Vice President and Technical Director of Object Management Group. OMG is responsible for several widely-used pre-defined modelling languages, including UML, SysML and BPMN, and is also the home of MOF, a standardised meta-modelling framework used to define Domain-Specific Languages. Panel members are expected to include Tony Clark (Xactium), Steve Cook (Microsoft), Matthew Fowler (NT/e), Chris Raistrick (Kennedy Carter) and Juha-Pekka Tolvanen (Metacase).