ABSE and AtomWeaver
A Quantum Leap in Software Development

PART I
About Software Development
A critical look into software development

Software, Everywhere
From wrist watches to the Space Shuttle,
software is everywhere
Every day, millions of lines of code are written
by thousands of software developers around the world
Our society becomes more dependent on software
every passing day

Increasing Software Complexity
Every system, every application, in every version,
in any domain, gets more complex at each iteraction
Evolution in lines of code on typical systems
70's 90's 2010
Cell Phone - 100.000 10.000.000
High-End Car 100.000 1.000.000 100.000.000
(GM/IBM Estimates)
Word Processor - 78.000 2.000.000+
(Word 4.0 DOS)
Operating System 10.000 4.500.000 50.000.000+
(Unix v1) (Windows NT 3.1) (Windows Vista)

Increasing Software Demand
Demand for software is skyrocketing
More and more “traditional” tasks are being
assisted or replaced by software
Today, most consumer devices have some sort
of software running inside. A growing trend.
Disposable computing is not far away...

Increasing Challenges
Software makers need to address the evolution in:
- Compliance regulations (HL7, Sarbanes-Oxley, HIPPA)
- Multi-core & Multi-threading
- Development paradigms (SOA, Web 2.0, SaaS, cloud computing)
And at the same time face:
- Decreasing time-to-market
- Decreasing budgets

Software development
is an
ever-growing
challenge...
What
have we done
so far
to address this?

The “Software Crisis”
“The major cause of the software crisis
is that the machines have become
several orders of magnitude more
powerful! To put it quite bluntly: as long
as there were no machines,
programming was no problem at all;
when we had a few weak computers,
programming became a mild problem,
and now we have gigantic computers,
programming has become an equally
gigantic problem.”
Edsger Dijkstra, 1972
This was written almost four decades ago,
but looks as it could have been written today.

The “Software Crisis”
Consecutive revolutions are being achieved in many domains
thanks to computer software.
Increasing Increasing Increasing
Demand Complexity Challenges
Software Crisis
Same Same Same
Workforce Methods Tools
However, software engineering is not seeing the same evolution
rate as in the domains it addresses.

Problem : Slow tool evolution
In the seventies,
people developed software line-by-line, file-by-file
Four decades later,
most people still develop software line-by-line, file-by-file
While there has been some evolution in development methods
and tools, most are essentially based on flat source files.

Problem : Same old methods
Waterfall
First described in 1970, is still the most widespread development organizational method.
“The waterfall model is argued by many to be a bad idea in practice, mainly because of their belief that it is impossible,
for any non-trivial project, to get one phase of a software product's lifecycle perfected before moving on to the next
phases and learning from them.”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Waterfall_model
One-Off Development
Every developed application is unique, started from scratch
“The assumption of one-off development is so deeply ingrained in this industry that most of us are not conscious of either
the practice or the alternatives. Even XP* and UP** assume that every product will be designed and developed
independently from first principles to accommodate its unique requirements, and neither of them provides guidance for
supplying or consuming reusable assets.”
Jack Greenfield, Keith Short – Software Factories
*XP = Extreme Programming
**UP = Unified Process

Problem : Feature Traceability
The traceability problem occurs when the solution features that implement a problem
feature cannot be easily identified.
This makes it hard to identify all of the things that need to change in the
implementation, and to ensure that all of the changes are made consistently, when
the requirements change.
Failing to trace all elements
that belong to a given feature Which
leads to bugs, inconsistencies,
? Data
and excess time. Feature
It's a (too) common scenario.
Source
Specification
Code

Failed Promises
In the recent past, several “promises” have emerged,
claiming to be the silver bullet to the software crisis.
But many have failed, or simply did not deliver.
Let us have a look into the most important ones:
(Quoting the opinion of others)

#1 : UML – Unified Modeling Language
“UML is applying an abstraction at the wrong end of the problem. It is
primarily used to sketch object models for inferior languages. As such,
it tends to explode into incomprehensible patterns of accidental
complexity in order to accommodate the various “design patterns”
that are used work around the lack of essential language features.
Because the UML models cannot be compiled, executed, or
interpreted, they are reduced to the level of mere documentation. As
such, it is generally not even worth keeping in sync– the manual
round trip from the code to the model and back is just too expensive
for something that adds no more value to a project than an elaborate
code comment.”
From lispy.wordpress.com
“UML has become complex and clumsy. For 80% of all software only 20% of UML
is needed. However, it is not easy to find the subset of UML which we would call
the Essential UML”.
Ivar Jacobson, Co-Inventor of UML, June 2009

#2 : MDA – Model-Driven Architecture
“At its most basic, MDA involves transforming one UML model into another UML model, possibly
several times and possibly automatically [...]. The MDA approach leads to the same results as
wizards: lots of code (and models) that you didn’t write yourself but that you are expected to
maintain. The MDA idea gets even worse when you consider round-tripping—would you like to
update the manually made changes to the code and lower level models back to all the higher-level
models?”
Kelly / Tolvanen – Metacase
“MDA is limited to the effectiveness of the UML as a language for model driven development,
a task it was not designed to support.”
Jack Greenfield - Microsoft
“Unfortunately, early enthusiasm for Model Driven Architecture (MDA) has dissipated to the
point that many people are openly skeptical of the value of any model-driven approach.”
From “MDA Redux”, by Alan Brown, published by IEEE Computer Society

#3 : DSLs - Domain-Specific Languages
“[...] the Tower Of Babel* effect that results from having so many languages that a person needs to
be familiar with (if not master) in order to get common jobs done.”
“... nothing is better than having your own Little Language to do a specific job. It allows for concise
expression of solutions to specific problems. But a problem arises when The Next Guy comes along
and has to learn the concepts behind the language, the motivations for particular elements of it,
the syntax, etc.”
“Writing a decent DSL is hard. Very limited, very simple DSL's can be adequately produced by a
competent programmer with expertise in the problem domain - DSL's that can be described on a
page or two, and are tailored to a specific application/environment. These language are seldom
usable outside the very limited context.”
“But writing a good DSL that is robust and reusable beyond a limited context, is a lot of work. It
requires persons with both domain expertise and language design expertise (not necessarily the
same person) to pull off. A truly reusable DSL will require reasonable documentation, otherwise it
won't survive the departure of its designers. And, it will eventually require a good set of tools -
debugging environments and the like - for it to become worthwhile.”
Taken from http://c2.com/cgi/wiki?DomainSpecificLanguage * http://c2.com/cgi/wiki?TowerOfBabel

Gaining Momentum : MDSD and DSM
Unlike MDA, MDSD (Model-Driven Software Development) and
DSM (Domain-Specific Modeling) follow a more pragmatic, less
formal approach to software modeling. That makes these
approaches more accessible to the mere developer.
“Forrester expects model-driven development (MDD) to play a key role in the future of software
development; it is a promising technique for helping application development managers address
growing business complexity and demand.”
Diego Lo Giudice – Forrester Research
Domain-Specific Modeling raises the level of abstraction
beyond programming by specifying the solution directly using
domain concepts. The final products are generated
from these high-level specifications, because both the model
and generators fit the requirements of only one company and
domain. Your experts define them, your developers use them.

PART II
ABSE - Overview
How can ABSE address today's software development problems

Quick Facts
ABSE
- Stands for “Atom-Based Software Engineering”
- Is a generative approach (generates code from models) to
MDSD (Model-Driven Software Development) and DSM (Domain-
Specific Modeling)
- Relies on tree-based models
AtomWeaver
- Is a cross-platform Integrated Development Environment (IDE)
- Implements and extends ABSE

The ABSE Tree
A software engineering project is made up of “Atoms”, organized
as a tree. That tree is the Project Model.
A tree conveys association, mimicking
the associative human brain, therefore
being able to represent and decompose
any problem or data structure.
The tree is ABSE's supporting paradigm,
allowing the model to “think” like us.
< A partial view of AtomWeaver's ABSE model

Models in ABSE
An ABSE model, like in other MDSD methodologies, is abstracted
at multiple levels:
Atom ABSE's single meta-metamodel
1
*
Atom Template Metamodels
1
*
Atom Instance Models
1
*
Text / Data Generated artifacts

Atom Types
There are only three types of Atoms:
Atom Template → The metamodels (building blocks) of any ABSE model
Atom Instance → The actual models that make up a project model
Atom Organizer → Organizes library contents into meaningful structures

Atom Libraries
An Atom Library contains Atom Templates, possibly structured in a
meaningful way through Atom Organizers.
Any ABSE model must be built from
one or more libraries as it can
only contain Atom Instances. Root Lib
Language Lib
Solution
Domain
Libraries can use or extend Platform Lib
other libraries.
Domain Lib
We can raise the abstraction Problem
Domain
level everytime we extend
Domain
a library. Components
Lib

Atom Libraries
The Atom Libraries are the driving force behind ABSE.
A good library can help you save many development hours,
and even more test hours.
The vision behind Software Product Lines (SPL) is that once the
company's domain is converted into models, they can be
reused and combined to create similar, but different, systems.
ABSE and its libraries help SPL's become a reality.
Libraries can be exchanged between systems through
ALX (AtomWeaver Library Exchange) files.

ABSE is Universal
It can support and combine all forms of software engineering,
including:
●
Traditional file-oriented methods Root Lib
Literate Programming
Higher Abstraction
●
Language Lib
●
Aspect-Oriented Programming
Platform Lib
●
Component-Based Development
● Feature-Driven Development Domain Lib
●
Domain-Specific Modeling
● Software Product Lines Domain
Components
● Software Factories Lib

ABSE is Universal
This is possible because ABSE...
●
… is not targeted to a specific language, architecture, or platform
●
… allows generation of any kind of text or data
● … has a very flexible meta-metamodel
●
… uses association as its paradigm, the basis of human thinking

ABSE is Domain-Agnostic
ABSE can be applied to virtually any domain.
Internet
Horizontal (solution domain) libraries can be
extended with vertical (problem domain)
Healthcare
libraries to achieve reductions in time-to-
market and savings on development and
testing efforts.
Science
Atoms can represent and generate code for
specific aspects of the target domain.
Embedded Devices
Aerospace Enterprise Defense Systems Automotive Entertainment Engineering

ABSE is Language-Independent
Being largely based on text generation,
ABSE can generate all kinds of textual
output, from plain text files to complete
software systems.
A single ABSE project can target multiple
languages and file types.
FortranHaskellEiffelC#PhytonSQLJavaABAPErlangScalaSmalltalkVHDLPrologC++
AdaPascalPHPLispRubyJavaScriptDelphiSASCOBOLCamlTclDVisualBasicCGroovyML

ABSE is Refactorable
Line-Oriented
ABSE metamodels can evolve with your skill.
Objects
You can start doing just some text
transformation, grow up by refactoring Patterns
Metamodels into common patterns.
You can continue right up to full Components
Domain-Specific Modeling and
Software Product Lines.
Each time you derive an Atom Template into Domain-Specific
another Template, you increase the
abstraction level.
Software Factory

ABSE is Easy
You don't need to be a rocket scientist to apply in an effective way.
ABSE is accessible to the "mere developer mortal".
An ABSE project is like a large mechanism
that can built from smaller, pre-built or
custom parts.
The ABSE approach is more pragmatic and simpler than other
DSL/model-driven tools or technologies like oAW, OMG's
MDA/MOF/XMI, Eclipse EMF/GMF, Microsoft OSLO/M, Xtext.

ABSE is Complete
source_file.h
ABSE meta-metamodel
designed to support 100% atom_concept_a Generated code
code generation from the
model. Custom
code
Generated
Model Transformation
code
Generated code
No round-trip necessary. Custom
code
Custom code
The mix of custom and source_file.cpp
generated code is directly atom_concept_b
supported by the meta- Custom
code
metamodel. Generated
code
Custom Custom code
code
No worries about
Generated code
overwritten custom code, Generated code
no management issues.

ABSE is Manageable
An ABSE model can grow to
generate multi-million line
applications, and still be easy
to manage.
That's because ABSE is based on
a tree and not on a graph:
Tree branches easily encapsulate
other branches.
A complex application using a graph

ABSE is Comprehensive
The complete ALM (Application Lifecycle Management)
cycle can be supported.
An ABSE tree is not exclusive to software implementation:
it can also represent processes, documentation, SCM, etc.
Documentation Project Bugs & Support

ABSE is Collaborative
Due to its granular nature,
an ABSE model can be Instance A
concurrently manipulated. Instance B
Two or more developers can
work on the same ABSE model. Instance C
Instance D
Instance E
And through a supporting tool
(like AtomWeaver), workflows Instance F
can be applied. Individual atoms Instance G
or tree branches can be
checked-in or out, versioned and
conditionally enabled/disabled.

PART III
ABSE in the Enterprise
How can ABSE improve software engineering

ABSE Can Bridge All Stakeholders
By making available the appropriate Templates to each stakeholder,
domain experts, designers, developers and testers can work
together on the same ABSE model.
● Domain experts can specify
●
Designers can design & re-arrange
●
Developers can build
● Testers can debug & test

ABSE Captures & Shares Knowledge
The company's domain knowledge and the team's development
knowledge can be captured into ABSE metamodels.
Benefits:
- Individual expertise can be shared with the whole team
- Less skilled developers can work like the experts
- Architectural uniformity can be achieved
- Best practices are easily disseminated and enforced

ABSE Increases Productivity
Some tasks under manual coding simply cannot scale:
- Repetitive patterns
- Repetitive coding
- Repetitive changes
- Interfacing code/specification
- Unit test preparation
- Debug/log/trace code
These and many other boring and error-prone tasks can
be reduced or even completely eliminated by using a
model-driven approach like ABSE.

ABSE Increases Productivity
The team's productivity potential increases whenever it adds
another metamodel (Atom Template) to the ABSE library.
Working on a higher abstraction level boosts your productivity.
Each time an ABSE metamodel is instantiated, time is saved.
Each time an ABSE metamodel is extended, more time is saved.

ABSE Increases Quality of Code
It is known that more time is spent debugging
code than actually writing it.
The code produced by the ABSE metamodels
can (and should) be tried and tested code.
By reducing the amount of custom code used
in the model, overall code quality increases.

Critical Innovation : Software Reuse
Systematic software reuse is a promising means to reduce
development cycle time and cost, improve software quality, and
leverage existing effort by constructing and applying multi-use
assets like architectures, patterns, components, and
frameworks.
“To realize a return on the investments we make in developing the solutions, we must reuse them
enough to more than recover the cost of their development, either directly through cost reductions,
or indirectly, through time to market reductions and quality improvements.”
Jack Greenfield et al - “Software Factories”

ABSE Promotes Reuse
The most common type of reuse is the reuse of software components, but
other artifacts produced during the software development process can also
be reused: system architectures, analysis models, design models, design
patterns, database schemas, web services, etc.
ABSE's meta-metamodel allows Atom Templates to be aggregators,
so you can turn any part of your project into a new template for
future reuse.
Instance A Template 1 Instance D
Instance B Instance A Instance 1
Instance C Instance B Instance E
“Templatization” Reuse
Instance C Instance F
Project A Library A Project B
In the same way, ABSE lets you turn recurring patterns into
templates, reducing project complexity and maintenance costs.

ABSE Reduces Maintenance Costs
With ABSE you'll have
less code to maintain.
Traditional Approach ABSE Approach
That's because you
only have to maintain Manual Code
one instance of your
code. All other
instances of that code
are automatically Manual Code
Codebase Size
updated.
Generated
And since manual code Manual Code Code
is natively supported,
Manual Code
there's no need to Generated
Code
waste time maintaining
protected regions,
code guards and other
trickery, just to Atom Library
maintain the integrity Atom Library
between manual and
generated code.

PART IV
ABSE - Technical Overview
A closer look into ABSE and how it works

The Atom (ABSE's Meta-metamodel)
The Atom can be root_default An Atom can also
instantiated into be compared to an
Atom Templates. object in an object-
oriented
programming
Base Template language.
Atom Templates
derive from other
templates.
Atom Template Instantiation Atom Instance
All Atom Templates Composition
derive from Admin Parameters Variables
root_default, the Creation
only pre-existing Form Functions
Condition
Atom Template in Transformation
Custom Areas Custom Code
ABSE. Code
Relocation
Atom Templates can
be instantiated into Derived Template
Atom Instances.

The Atom Admin Section
Atom Template
The Admin Section of an Atom
Template determines how its instances Admin Parameters
are presented and how they behave
Form Functions
on the Model Tree.
Transformation
Custom Areas
Code
On the Admin Section you can define:
- Icon and Label to be shown on the model
- Construction constraints
- Atom parameters
- Other discovery and construction helpers
The Admin Section also inherits from its base templates.

The Atom Form Section
Atom Template
Each Atom Template has a dedicated
Editor. Admin Parameters
Form Functions
Transformation
Custom Areas
Code
The Form Section lets you define how
the editor presents the Atom Template
Parameters and how you can set the
corresponding Instance Variables.
The Form Section also inherits from its base templates.

The Atom Functions Section
(and Behaviors)
Atom Template
This section lets you define extra atom Admin Parameters
Functions.
Form Functions
Transformation
Custom Areas
The most common use is to define Code
Atom Behaviors.
An Atom Behavior is a powerful generalization technique: It allows
the atom to respond to a specific, globally-defined query.
Any atom can request processing from another atom without
actually knowing its type, allowing unlimited future extensions.

The Atom Transformation Code
The transformation code allows any Atom Template
atom to perform actions based on its
input parameters. Admin Parameters
Form Functions
Most common task is to generate
Transformation
code, but other tasks like modifying Code
Custom Areas
other atoms and OS calls are also
possible.
The Atom's transformation code is
segmented into the following steps:
Create Pre Exec Post
Code Code Code Code

The Atom's Custom Code
To support 100% code generation from Atom Template
the model, and to avoid synchronization
Admin Parameters
problems between generated and
custom code, ABSE allows you to define Form Functions
one or more custom code areas on an
Transformation
Atom Instance. Code
Custom Areas
java_function source_file.java
int Function()
parameter {
generated code;
generated code;
parameter
custom_code custom_code
generated code;
}

The Instance's Creation Condition
Atom Instance
The inclusion of each Atom Instance Variables
on the project can be subject to an
Creation
expression that dictates whether that Condition
Atom is executed or not.
Custom Code
If the evaluated condition is false, the Relocation
Atom becomes invisible to the project.
This brings more flexibility to the
generation process and allows templates
to include/exclude some of their auto-
generated atoms based on user-supplied
values.

Instance Relocation
Atom Instances that are auto-generated by Atom Instance
an Atom Template can then be relocated to
Variables
another position on the model tree.
Creation
Condition
The relocated atom may be again moved
Custom Code
by the user, if it is not blocked.
Relocation
For instance, user interface programmers may create atoms that
will automatically create the interface visual elements's atoms.
Designers can then manipulate and edit those atoms to achieve
the desired application visuals.

ABSE Strength #1 : Inheritance
Like classes in several programming
languages, Atom Templates can be
derived into more complex and root_default
specialized Templates.
cpp_class
This allows you to
build metamodels
that share common
concepts. gui_dialog ext_data_object
db_persistent_object
The derived template will inherit all
properties and code from its base template.

ABSE Strength #2 : Composition
Atoms can be combined to build larger structures.
Atom Instances are combined to build the Project Model.
Atom Templates can be composed of several other Templates which,
on their turn, can also be composed of other Templates.
From Wikipedia: ext_powered_class
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Obje
ct_composition
Composited (composed) objects are
often referred to as having a "has a" cpp_member cpp_method
relationship. A real-world example of
composition may be seen in an
automobile: the objects wheel, cpp_member cpp_argument
steering wheel, seat, gearbox and
engine may have no functionality by
themselves, but an object called cpp_return_value
automobile containing all of those
objects would serve a higher
function, greater than the sum of its
parts.

Inheritance & Composition Combined
You can see here how a metamodel of Actual metamodels from AtomWeaver project
a C++ class, composed of two Atom
Instances, is derived into an
“extended class” with added
features. Then a C++ Component
metamodel is defined by
inheriting Extended Class
and adding data and
configuration
features...

Inheritance & Composition Combined
Then a Persistent
Component
metamodel was
created by inheriting
a C++ Component
model and adding
specific DB features.
The same was done
to create a Database
Document
metamodel.

Inheritance & Composition Combined
You can implicitly generate dozens
or even hundreds of atoms just by
adding a single atom instance to
the project.
If each of those atoms generates
just a few lines of code...
Imagine how much code that can
be generated at once!
Now imagine that the generated
code is mature, tested, quality
code...

Atom Templates = Software Components
ABSE lets you build applications like Lego . A simple, yet effective
tm
constraint system drives you on the component discovery and
construction process.
Metamodels Constraints Correct Models
+ =

ABSE is an Executable Model
Every Atom on the ABSE Tree has its own transformation code
(acquired from its template).
To generate code, the Model Tree
recursively executes its atoms,
Execution Sequence
which is equivalent to say that all
atoms are executed from top to
bottom.
The tree is executed four times,
and on each iteraction one of the
following Atom Template sections
is executed:
Create Pre Exec Post
Code Code Code Code

Variable Transmission
Atom cpp_class
Defines: class_name, Variables are set on Atom
inheritance
Can access: ... Instances, and each variable
corresponds to an Atom
Template parameter.
Atom cpp_function
Defines: func_name
Can access: class_name,
inheritance Any variable from an Atom
is automatically available to
Atom cpp_argument all branch children.
Defines: arg_name,
arg_type
Can access: class_name,
Inheritance, func_name
This way, any Atom can
work “in context” with its
Atom cpp_member
ancestors.
Defines: member_name,
member_type
Can access: class_name,
inheritance

PART V
AtomWeaver
An ABSE Integrated Development Environment

AtomWeaver is an ABSE Model
AtomWeaver is being developed through an ABSE Model.
AtomWeaver is ABSE's proof-of-concept, showing that a
fairly sophisticated application can be easily built using a
model-driven approach like ABSE.
Some statistics:
(Current version of AtomWeaver Prototype)
- 38000 Total Atoms
- 7800 User-Created Atoms
- 30200 Auto-Generated Atoms
- 334 Atom Templates in Library
- 2456 Atom Instances in Model
- 174756 Lines of Generated (+ Manual) Code
- 701 Generated Files

Introducing AtomWeaver
AtomWeaver implements and extends ABSE
into a complete, agile, dynamic IDE.
AtomWeaver prototype – AtomWeaver's own ABSE model loaded

Introducing AtomWeaver
Due to ABSE's genericity,
AtomWeaver works on any
development environment,
Integrated with any tool chain
AtomWeaver is presently the market's only plug-and-play MDSD system
No other present system lets you start creating models in a few minutes

AtomWeaver : The Universal Generator
Besides pure programming, Why use separate tools?
the modern software vendor
faces a long list of other AtomWeaver can be the central
peripheral, but equally point of all development activities.
important activities:
- Requirement management Using AtomWeaver's modeling and
- Research generation capabilities, it's
- Change management surprisingly easy to:
- Building
- Testing - Build your own bug tracker
- Version control - Implement code coverage
- Issue management - Automate documentation
- Internal/customer reporting
- Build synch'ed intranets/websites
- End-user documentation
- Code revisions - Create configurations/build files
- Installer packaging - Package resources
- Application resources - Automatically build tests
- Databases - Embed debug/trace code
- ... - Refactor features/architecture

AtomWeaver Modules
AtomWeaver is composed of several mandatory and optional
modules. Each module contains a different aspect of the project.
Library, Model, Files and Log are the mandatory modules. All
others are optional.
Future AtomWeaver versions will allow the creation of other,
custom-defined modules through its API.

AtomWeaver Modules
Documentation → For development support documentation, drafts, etc.
Library → Contains all libraries loaded into the project
Model → Holds the project's main model
Files → Lists and manages all generated artifacts
Issues → Manages SCM operations (bug tracking as the most common)
Help → Builds and concentrates all end-user documentation
Log → Registers all that is happening in AtomWeaver

AtomWeaver's Model Transformation DSL: Lua
Instead of using an exotic, custom DSL, AtomWeaver uses Lua to
transform ABSE models into final source code.
Lua is a lightweight, reflective, imperative and functional
programming language, designed to be a scripting language.
Several benchmarks show Lua as the fastest interpreted scripting
language available.
This is specially important to code generation where millions of
lines of transformation code are typically needed on a large project.

AtomWeaver Extends ABSE
AtomWeaver adds tools and commands to ABSE's basic featureset
to improve the developer's experience and productivity, including :
●
Atom Dictionary : Lets you reference any project Atom by
its associated name.
●
Atom Lists : Lets you categorize atoms and build lists according
to your pre-defined criteria.
● Counters : Lets you use unique values project-wide.

AtomWeaver editions
Two editions of AtomWeaver are planned:
Solo Edition Team Edition
For: For:
- Individuals - Collaborative projects
- MicroISVs - SME's
- Small projects - Large corporations
- Isolated generation tasks - Research institutes

AtomWeaver 1.0 feature matrix
Feature Solo Edition Team Edition
Code Generator, Interpreter, Rules Engine X X
IDE X X
Library Repository X X
File-based Database Storage (SQLite) X
Server-based Database Storage (MS SQL Server) X
ALM (Application LifeCycle Management) Support X X
Model Versioning X
Developer Roles X
Concurrent Model Edition X
Workflows & Tasks X

AtomWeaver estimated prices
Solo Edition Team Edition
USD $499 USD $999
Regular Regular, Per Seat
USD $199 USD $499
Early Adopter Campaign Early Adopter Campaign
Per Seat
Prices not definitive, subject to change
Optional support and/or maintenance not included

AtomWeaver's next major features
The following major features are planned
for versions 2 & 3 of AtomWeaver
Flexible Diagramming Generic GUI Mockups Scripting API
Any kind of diagram can be Mockups for any system will AtomWeaver will be
created, following rules be possible using ABSE's scriptable, opening the door
defined in Atom Templates generic constraint system. to user-defined ABSE
and in the Library. Hybrid Programmers can program models, extensions, custom
diagram/tree development while designers can design actions on atoms, and third-
will be possible. and rearrange. party add-ons.

The Library Exchange
AtomWeaver will have its dedicated Library Exchange site that
will concentrate all publicly available Atom Libraries:
- Free Libraries
- Commercial Libraries
These libraries can be supplied by:
- Individual users
- Commercial vendors
- Isomeris
By using ready-made libraries, you save time and get quality
code and models from the domain experts.

Team Edition Feature:
Concurrent Model Edition
The project is stored on a central database
Developers can load a copy of the project into their workstations
An Atom or a branch can be checked-out for edition. Other users
are denied write access to that atom or branch
After check-in, changes are incorporated into the central database
AtomWeaver regularly checks for new updates and automatically
loads them to the local copy of the project

Team Edition Feature:
Developer Role Management
The structure of a development team is mimicked in the
AtomWeaver environment
Each user must log in to work on a project
The two main roles are Architects and Developers. Other roles
can be created
Each role can have different privileges regarding code access
or changes
Developer roles are also useful for workflows

Team Edition Feature:
Model Versioning
Like in a source control system, atoms can be versioned
Branches/forks can be made
Past project snapshots can be obtained
Atoms can be reverted to a previous version
Different versions of atoms or branches can be diff'ed

Team Edition Feature:
Workflows and Tasks
The development process can be pro-actively managed by
AtomWeaver
All processes are defined by the organization through Atoms,
stored as libraries
Workflows, tasks and memos can be issued.
Activities like testing, change requests, code reviews, etc. can
be implemented
Atoms can be selected & associated to these activities

AtomWeaver release timeline*
Mar.2010 : AtomWeaver Team v1.0 CTP
Nov.2010 : AtomWeaver Team v2.0
2009 2010 2011
Sep.2010 : AtomWeaver Solo v2.0
Nov.2009 : AtomWeaver Solo v1.0 CTP Jan.2011 : AtomWeaver Solo v3.0
*Timings subject to change

AtomWeaver Competitors
Code Generation is a high-growth market segment: There
are currently dozens of competitors.
However, most of these products are specific to a
given domain, platform, or function.
None of the other existing products today
is able to offer a technological
innovation that can be recognized as
a true software development
breakthrough as
ABSE & AtomWeaver
do.

PART VI
Summary
Summing up ABSE & AtomWeaver

ABSE aims to lead the MDSD movement
MDSD is recognized as the next revolution in the Software
Engineering industry, and is gaining momentum among larger
organizations.
However, complexity in its various implementations prevents it
from gaining mainstream adoption.
ABSE aims to lead MDSD adoption by:
- Defining a very light meta-metamodel
- Having a small set of rules
- Being flexible (can mix custom and generated code)
- Having a reference implementation (AtomWeaver)

AtomWeaver aims to compete with other
high-end IDE's
MS Visual Studio and Eclipse are the major players in the
general-purpose software IDE segment
AtomWeaver can differentiate itself by:
- Its unique development approach (ABSE)
- A high adaptability to very specific industries and domains
- Having lower licensing costs

Reality Check !
ABSE still in its infancy
AtomWeaver is still just a bare-bones IDE
Developer mindset inertia is a respectful opponent

ABSE & AtomWeaver on the Internet
www.twitter.com/atomweaver
atomweaver.ning.com
www.abse.info
www.atomweaver.com
www.ruicurado.com

Thank you for your interest in
ABSE and AtomWeaver
www.isomeris.com