This ran contrary to the user perception of a model as consisting of several
graphs, each represented in one diagram. There was no support for complex
properties, effectively ruling out true modeling of the new object-oriented methods
with their Classes containing collections of Attributes, each with its own properties.
Complex object support was limited to a simple explosion construct, representing a
free-form link between an object and another diagram in the same model.
Despite these limitations, MetaEdit proved somewhat successful as a metaCASE
and modeling tool, with users numbering in the thousands. It was also used as a tool in
other research projects, for example, Jarzabek and Ling (1996) found it useful in
developing a BPR modeling language and its tool support. The ease of metamodeling
seems to have been a major factor enabling others to use MetaEdit without
intervention or hand holding from its creators.
14.2.5 TBK/ToolBuilder (Sunderland University/IPSYS/Lincoln)
The TBK (Tool Builders Kit) framework and ToolBuilder metaCASE system was
originally reported in Alderson (1991) and was later commercialized by IPSYS. The
system consisted of three components:
. The speci?¬?cation component??”used to create the speci?¬?cation of the tool;
. The generation component??”used to transform the speci?¬?cation into
parameters for the generic tool;
.
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