Multi-touch modeling with Whole Language Workbench on a Wacom Cintiq 24HD Touch

Last saturday I had the opportunity to try a Wacom Cintiq 24HD Touch attached to a Mac Mini and I discovered that it is much more powerful than is advertised.
The multi-touch functionality makes it possible to interact with the operating system and all of the installed applications by using (at least) the same standard gestures supported by the Apple Magic Trackpad.

So, after the installation of the last publicly released version, I played with the Whole Platform for at least two hours using only multi-touch gestures and a wireless keyboard (no trackpad).

As you can easily guess, the Whole Platform is somewhat "touch ready" thanks to its extensive use of graphical notations, drag and drop, and context menus.
By using a 24" display many constructs are already large enough to be selected by a tap or targeted by a drop. Otherwise you have to pinch to zoom the area before performing the desired action.

It was a very amazing experience even for me to discover that modeling the structure, behavior and tooling of a language is already more pleasant and more effective on a tablet-like configuration!

Release of Whole Language Workbench - CG2013 Edition

At this year Code Generation conference and Language Workbench Challenge, we previewed the upcoming release of the Whole Language Workbench.

Today, we are pleased to announce that the new milestone release is publicly available.
Please note that the examples include both the LWC assignment solution and the CG hands-on session material.

As usual, both binaries and source code are available:

• SourceForge archives here.
• GitHub Platform source here and Examples source here.

Whole Platform hands-on session at CG2013

The main subject of the session was the demonstration of a DSL focused on facilitating the introduction of domain abstractions into an existing code base.

We started by showing a few examples of the Patterns DSL applied to different domains such as JavaFX, code reuse, SWT, and GEF. In a few of them we completely replaced the underling code while in others we only abstracted parts of it.

JavaFX code abstracted

JavaFX patterns

Patterns and Models abstracted

Reuse patterns

SWT patterns

GEF code abstracted

GEF patterns

During the hands-on part of the session we started from scratch to introduce abstraction into a Java code base.
Using a set of Java classes we built an artifacts model representing our modeled starting point.
Then we applied a few refactoring such as "Introduce Patterns in Pattern Language", "Extract Patterns", "Extract scattered Pattern" to progressively gain the ability to use in our model patterns like "Property", "JavaBean", "JavaBeanModel", and "JavaProject".

First pattern introduced

Java Beans patterns

Java code without and with new abstractions 

Whole Platform Solution to LWC 2013

If you missed the demonstration of our solution to the LWC 2013 assignment, here are some screenshots to get an idea.

The composable Metamodels of QL and QLS (see Foreign Type Relations)

An example of a model instance using both languages

The semantics used to generate code and validate the model instance

The resulting SWT application being generated

Finally the tooling and the tests

Whole Platform team already in Cambridge

In order to attend to the CodeGeneration conference, the Whole Platform team has already established its headquarters in the two most productive places of Cambridge: the Starbacks and the Castle Inn.

Enrico is putting its final touch to our solution for the LWC13 assignment. You can watch the whole-examples repository to have an early preview.

I am working full time for the hands-on session Incremental engineering of DSLs from Software Prototypes. Come to the session for touching how much the development of languages can be sped up.
The new technology will be disclosed as an exclusive preview for Code Generation 2013: so no screenshots to show in advance!

Whole Platform at Code Generation 2013

We are pleased to invite you at our hands-on session at Code Generation 2013 titled Incremental engineering of DSLs from Software Prototypes.

During the session you'll be able to experiment with an innovative technology that greatly simplifies the derivation of a DSL by capturing patterns found in the code.

Don't miss the opportunity to meet the core team of the Whole Platform during the conference!

Whole Platform Preview at CG2012: neat new graphical notations

At CodeGeneration 2012 we previewed the next major version of the Whole Platform.

One notable change is the new look of the graphical notations.

This post outlines my design goals and provides a few comparative examples.

Notation Design Highlights

• Optimized for visual exploration
• Consistent choice of colors across all of the Whole Core languages
• Reduced verbosity
• Better use of space (in both dimensions)
• Extended use of nested tables to improve readability

To facilitate the comparison with the old version, I show here side-by-side a few screenshots of the language notations that changed the most.

Models DSL

Grammars DSL

Queries DSL (and Commons DSL)

Semantics DSL (and Commons DSL)