This document analyzes activity in 22 Eclipse modeling forums from 2005-2014. It finds that: - 2009 was the busiest year for the forums, with over 25,000 posts. Activity has generally declined since 2010. - Forums for textual modeling tools like Xtext received more posts than graphical modeling tools like GMF, Graphiti, and Sirius. - The EMF and Xtext forums remain the most active, receiving the most posts each year. Overall forum activity across modeling tools seems to be declining.

1. Eclipse Modelling Forums:
Looking at the Data
James Williams1, Nicholas Matragkas1,
Dimitris Kolovos1, Yannis Korkontzelos2,
Sofia Annaniadou2, Richard Paige1
1University of York, 2University of Manchester

2. Overview
• Analysed 22 modelling-related Eclipse
forums
• Tools and frameworks
– EMF, GMF, Xtext, Epsilon, M2T, OCL, Graphiti,
EMFT, ATL, IncQuery, GMT, UML2, UML2
Tools, Papyrus, MOFScript, Modisco,
VIATRA2, UMLX, QVTd, QVTo, MMT and
Sirius
• Calculated average number of posts/
month from 2005 – 2014 (projected)
2

3. • Activity monitoring
platform for OSS projects
• Currently developed in the
context of an EC co-funded project
– www.ossmeter.org
• Scope
– Source code
– Communication channels (forums/newsgroups/
mailing lists)
– Bug tracking systems
3

4. FORUM TRAFFIC ≈ ACTIVE
USER COMMUNITY SIZE
4

5. Special cases: EMFT
• EMF Technology
• Forum for several projects including
– EMF Compare
– Henshin (GT engine)
– CDO
– EMF Client
– Teneo
– EMF Forms
– EMFStore
• Further analysis required to allocate posts to
individual projects
5

6. Special cases: MMT
• Forum related to model-to-model
transformation languages
• Mostly ATL and QVTo
• Very few messages (139 since 2012)
6

7. Special cases: M2T
• Forum related to model-to-text
transformation languages
• Mostly Acceleo, Xpand and JET
• Preliminary classification (7831 posts)
– JET: 998
– Xpand: 1671
– Acceleo: 2700
– Unclassified: 2462 (≈30%)
• Further analysis required
7

8. Graphical Modelling Frameworks
• GMF
• Graphiti
• Sirius
8

9. 700
600
500
400
300
200
100
0
2005
2006
2007
2008
2009
2010
2011
2012
2013
2014
GMF
Graphiti
Sirius
9

10. Graphical vs. Textual Modelling
• Graphical: GMF + Graphiti + Sirius
• Textual: Xtext
10

11. 9000
8000
7000
6000
5000
4000
3000
2000
1000
0
2005
2006
2007
2008
2009
2010
2011
2012
2013
2014
Graphical
Textual
11

12. UML in Eclipse
• UML2
• UML2 Tools
• Papyrus
12

13. 200
180
160
140
120
100
80
60
40
20
0
2005
2006
2007
2008
2009
2010
2011
2012
2013
2014
UML
Papyrus
UML2 Tools
13

14. Model Management Languages
• Forums: ATL, M2T, Epsilon, IncQuery,
QVTo, OCL
• Analysed but not included in the graph:
UMLX, QVTd, VIATRA2, MOFScript
14

15. 200
180
160
140
120
100
80
60
40
20
0
2005
2006
2007
2008
2009
2010
2011
2012
2013
2014
Epsilon
M2T
OCL
ATL
IncQuery
QVTo
15

16. 0
10000
20000
30000
40000
50000
60000
70000
EMF
TMF (Xtext)
GMF
Epsilon
M2T
OCL
Graphiti
EMFT
ATL
IncQuery
GMT
UML2
UML2 Tools
Papyrus
MOFScript
Modisco
VIATRA2
UMLX
QVTd
QVTo
MMT
Sirius
Number of posts (2005-14)
16

17. 0
2000
4000
6000
8000
10000
12000
14000
16000
18000
EMF
TMF (Xtext)
GMF
Epsilon
M2T
OCL
Graphiti
EMFT
ATL
IncQuery
GMT
UML2
UML2 Tools
Papyrus
MOFScript
Modisco
VIATRA2
UMLX
QVTd
QVTo
MMT
Sirius
Number of posts (2012-14)
17

18. 0
500
1000
1500
2000
2500
3000
3500
4000
EMF
TMF (Xtext)
GMF
Epsilon
M2T
OCL
Graphiti
EMFT
ATL
IncQuery
GMT
UML2
UML2 Tools
Papyrus
MOFScript
Modisco
VIATRA2
UMLX
QVTd
QVTo
MMT
Sirius
Number of posts (2014)
18

19. Quiz
• Which was the busiest year for Eclipse
modelling-related forums?
– 2009
– 2010
– 2013
19

20. 25000
20000
15000
10000
5000
0
Number of posts/year
2005
2006
2007
2008
2009
2010
2011
2012
2013
2014
20

21. 800
700
600
500
400
300
200
100
0
2005
2006
2007
2008
2009
2010
2011
2012
2013
2014
EMF
Xtext
21

22. Observations
• Textual modelling > graphical modelling
• Xtext and EMF still dominate the Eclipse
modelling community
• GMF has lost 90% of its forum activity since 2007
• Overall forum activity seems to be declining since
2010
– Steep drop in 2014
– Maturity?
– Stackoverflow?
• “EMF” -> 3.2K messages
• “Xtext” -> 1.6K messages
– Wider Eclipse issue?
22