Lightweight Domain-Specific Modeling and Model-Driven Development

Domain-specific modeling (DSM), especially when accompanied with powerful tools such as code generators, can significantly increase productivity in software development. On the other hand, DSM requires a high initial investment due to the effort needed for designing a domainspecific modeling language and implementing code generators. In this paper, a lightweight DSM approach that uses somewhat more generic languages and developer-guided transformations borrowed from model-driven development is discussed. It is concluded that the lightweight approach can be used as a bridge to full-blown DSM or in a context where sufficient economies of scale do not exist to justify the investment required by the latter approach.