We are talking about domain specific metamodel. And this is the key to the use of meta-modelling as I am now starting to learn from David's recent note as well as rereading of his book.
One simple way to see this is to think about naming (whose importance in modelling has been stressed since the ancient times --- it is even in Michael Jackson --- though my understanding on this matter came from Matthew Rawlings). Now naming has at least the following two purposes in modelling:
- to make something existent which has not been existed (well to be precise reify but I think this may not be too far fetched)
- to make this stage prepared for future usage esp integration but also for maintenance and evolution and all that
One of the well-practiced answers is a dictionary, a dictionary of terms and conceps which are used in modelling. But this means a dictionary should cross over individual model elements, that is it should be at a meta-model.
From a different viewpoint, modelling can easily be lousy. And even good models are hardly useful except when they are equipped with useful helping infrastructure, including model transformation, assertion checking, automatic template generation, etc. (consider MOF transformations David discussed in his book). Without such infrastructure we do not have a good use of models themselves except as the means of communication --- but even the latter becomes much much more efficient with the use of metamodels which govern and guide them.
And this has a direct relevance to the design of Scribble --- even though it is a general-purpose language for describing interactions (well it is domain-specific in the sense that it is about interactions, but as such it is general purpose, and from the viewpoint of MDA too general-purpose --- so we do need be ready for domain specificity --- and here am I revealing too much? As it is reflected on Scribble's design we shall report on this and other columns).
NB: I am sorry updates this blog are not done so much recently: this is because I am busy in two fronts: (1) logics for interactions (motivated by both foundations and from Matthew's ingenious *short* treatise); and (2) understanding (meta)modelling to be reflected onto the design of the language. I also confess I am writing many technical papers, since to communicate something new one needs to prepare people's minds --- on this point perhaps we can discuss later. But on scribble, our main topic now is modelling and meta-modelling, which will prepare for other associated technologies such as DBC.
