Formatting Aware Model-to-Text Transformations

Transforming the abstract syntax representation of a model back into its textual notation is an important part of the development of domain-specific language tools. Clear formatting impacts readability, comprehension, and collaboration of modelers. Human modelers prefer strategic line breaks, indentation, and alignment of model elements.

However, this formatting information is not preserved during parsing, as parsers strip away such syntactic sugar, nor is it present when new models are created by tools.

While manual provided formatting rules can restore formatting, this approach is labor-intensive, causing modelers and tool developers to simply accept bad formatting.

What if we can derive this formatting from a corpus of existing, well-formatted models? Your task is to do exactly that and integrate the formatting information into existing Model-to-Text transformations (“Pretty Printer”). With your thesis, a tool should be able to output well-formatted, human-readable models.

Tasks of this thesis

• Identify factors of model formatting.
• Attach formatting information to DSL definitions
• Concept and realization of model-to-formatted-text transformations
• Detect and handle heterogeneous formatting within a corpus
• Evaluate your work using the SysML v2 and another DSL.

Your Profile

• Lecture SLE
• Solid experience in Java
• The ability to independently develop solutions to complex problems

Contact

For more information, please send a short description of your background and overview of grades to Alex Lüpges (luepges@se-rwth.de).

Task definition

Prof. Dr. Bernhard Rumpe Lehrstuhl Software Engineering Ahornstr. 55 52074 Aachen