NMF: A Modeling Framework for the .NET Platform

For its promises in terms of increased productivity, Modeldriven engineering (MDE) is getting applied increasingly often in both industry and academia. However, most tools currently available are based on the Eclipse Modeling Framework (EMF) and hence based on the Java platform whereas tool support for other platforms is limited. This leads to a language and tool adoption problem for developers of other platforms such as .NET. As a result, few projects on the .NET platform adopt MDE. Furthermore, the limited tool availability introduces a technical barrier in the interoperability between EMF and .NET applications. In this paper, we present the .NET Modeling Framework (NMF), a tool set for model repositories, model-based incrementalization, model transformation, model synchronization and code generation. The framework makes intensive use of the C# language as host language for model transformation and synchronization languages, whereas the model repository serialization is compatible with EMF. This solves the language adoption problem for C# programmers and creates a bridge to the EMF platform.