Tooling the Dynamic Behavior Models of Graphical DSLs

Domain-specific modeling is a powerful technique to describe complex systems in a precise but still understandable way. Rapid creation of graphical Domain-Specific Languages (DSLs) has been focused for many years. Research efforts have proven that metamodeling is a promising way of defining the abstract syntax of the language. It is also clear that DSLs can be developed to describe the concrete syntax and the dynamic behavior. Previous research has contributed a set of graphical DSLs to model the behavior ("animation") of arbitrary graphical DSLs. This paper contributes practical techniques to simplify our message handling method, automate the integration process, and show where domain-specific model patterns can help to accelerate the simulation modeling process.