Responding to Observator05...

>this is my question, what is the platform definition in the MDA context?
>A platform is only a technological approach (java, ejb, xml, etc.) or
>perhaps, the concept of platform is any structure that can be used to
>model or implement a system?
>you know a official platform definition ?
>
>

The definition of 'platform' is deliberately broad under MDA. It
essentially refers to the overall development and computing environment
where the executable is constructed and executes. So things like EJB
and XML would be part of the platform.

There is also a notion of the separation of executable and development
environments. That separation is important to elaboration (round-trip)
tools because they focus on manual contributions down to the level of
the traditional view of 'platform' as the place where the software
executes (i.e., platform = {hardware, OS, peripherals}). So the
elaboration tools usually apply a more restrictive definition. In
contrast the translation approaches, because they automate much of the
computing space during full code generation directly from PIMs, need a
much broader definition of platform that includes any technology,
technique, libraries, etc. that could be selected locally from among
alternatives in a manner that affects how the code in generated and
optimized.

Another way to look at this is that one distinction between PIMs and
PSMs lies in the sorts of requirements that they address. PIM only
address functional requirements from the customer problem space while
PSMs elaborate the PIM solution with resolution of nonfunctional
requirements. Since nonfunctional requirement resolution is always
tailored to the local computing environment, MDA includes all those
local factors that could affect the resolution of nonfunctional
requirements in the notion of 'platform'.


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H. S. Lahman
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Pathfinder Solutions -- Put MDA to Work
http://www.pathfindermda.com
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