Gra2MoL: A domain specific transformation language for bridging grammarware to modelware in software modernization

Model-driven engineering (MDE) can be used both to create new software systems and to evolve or modernize existing software systems. In model-driven software evolution, models are extracted from the system and then MDE techniques are applied to make it evolve. Most evolution scenarios involve dealing with existing source code written in some programming languages. Therefore, a bridge from grammarware to MDE must be built to extract models from such a source code. In this paper we present an approach for the extraction of models conforming to a target metamodel from source code conforming to the grammar of a programming language. This approach is based on the definition of a grammar-to-model transformation language, named Gra2MoL, which is a language specially tailored to address the grammarware-modelware bridge in modernization scenarios. The language promotes grammar reuse, and provides domain-specific features such as a powerful query language to traverse syntax trees.