A model-driven framework for domain specific languages demonstrated on a test automation language

Innovation in today’s automotive industry is largely based on electronics and software. To get a competitive edge a company has to deliver new features steadily. This trend is boosted by a decreasing technology life cycle. The result is an exponential growth of software inside a car. As quality plays a critical role software and hardware have to be tested properly, manual testing is not practicable anymore. At the BMW Group a framework for test automation has been developed including a Microsoft Excel based test specification language. The language and its implementation approach offer various places for improvement, however due to the chosen technology the emendation possibilities are limited. Therefore the development of a new domain specific language (DSL) was decided. However, the development of a new DSL is a difficult task at the moment. The developer needs expertise in the field of language development which involves design, lexical analysis, parser and compiler construction, implementation of a suited runtime and most importantly knowledge of the concepts within the specific domain. A various number of tools supporting domain specific language development is available, yet most lack in categories like reusability, maintainability, interoperability or ease of use. For that reason this thesis proposes a new framework for the development of domain specific languages which is based on the vision of Model-Driven Engineering (MDE). In MDE models are the central artifact of software engineering and enable reuse. A domain and its language (syntax and semantic) are described by models. The framework allows the reuse of existing textual grammars for compiler generator tools, translating them into models. Thereby it becomes possible to apply a large number of MDE transformation and generation tools to them. In turn a language parser and generator can be produced from these grammar models. An additional goal is to automatically generate a suitable language editor and debugger to improve developer experience. Using the proposed framework, the test automation language is reimplemented. This is realized by reusing an existing language and extending it. Also different problems like error reporting or tool support for the DSL are solved.