Application Generation - Code Generation

Presenting on “Spring Roo and Code Generation” at Code Generation 2010

Mon, 08 Mar 2010 12:57:00 -0400

See my new blog for the details!

CF Template - CFML for Code Generation

Thu, 03 Dec 2009 13:27:00 -0400

I'm doing a project right now which requires me to generate code for a Coldbox app from a collection of DSLs, so I'm updating/upgrading all of my code generation tools (for the last couple of years I've spent most of my time using runtime interpretation of the DSLs instead). I just wanted to point out that CF template is a really useful little project that might be helpful if you need to do any code generation using ColdFusion. See more at my new blog.

Free One Day Conference Pass - Practical Product Lines 2009 - Amsterdam

Thu, 15 Oct 2009 11:13:00 -0400

If you are in or near Amsterdam and would like to attend the inaugural Practical Product Lines conference, drop me a line before end of business tomorrow and I should be able to get you a pass. It can be for either the 20th or the 21st, but why *wouldn't* you come on the Tuesday and catch my case study?! I'm really excited about the conference. For anyone involved in building multiple applications which have commonalities between them, software product lines can provide huge benefits in terms of efficiently reusing everything from specifications to workflows to contracts to tests and code. It's great to see a practitioner focused conference and the lineup of speakers suggests it's going to be a great experience!

Code Generation Panelists

Tue, 02 Jun 2009 18:09:00 -0400

On Thursday 18th June at Murray Edwards College (formerly New Hall), Cambridge, UK I'll be moderating a panel on The State of the Art in Domain Specific Modeling. I've been lucky enough to get an amazing panel consisting of Steve Cook (Microsoft), Juha-Pekka Tolvanen (MetaCase), Jos Warmer (Ordina) and Markus Völter ((Independent / itemis)) - four of the top minds in Domain Specific Modeling/code generation. The topic is: "Elegant support for refactoring DSLs. Better tooling for simplifying meta-model specification. Seamless integration between visual and textual model representations. What are the top DSM practitioners thinking about, frustrated about and excited about? A fast paced panel discussion with top practitioners sharing what they feel the limitations and issues still are in improving the effectiveness of Domain Specific Modeling and what new approaches and ideas they are excited about or are having great results with." It's not too late to come along to find more about what the future of code generation, domain specific modeling and raising the level of abstraction in software development might hold!

Code Generation 2009 - Early Bird Ends Soon

Fri, 20 Mar 2009 23:46:00 -0400

I know I've been gushing about NFJS this weekend, but I want to do a shout out for Code Generation 2009 as the early bird is ending on March 31st. I see so many people making the same simple mistakes when writing code generators and other tooling for building applications more quickly. Code Generation really is the premier practitioner conference for anyone interested in developing applications more quickly through code gen, domain specific modeling and software product lines. I'm also really excited by the keynote speakers this year. Steve and Markus really are two of the top minds in DSM/code gen, but at the same time they're practical and good communicators. The keynotes are going to be great. We've also pulled together an excellent program from a lot of great submissions and I'm certainly looking forwards to getting some more experience with MetaEdit+ and openArchitectureWare as well as to see what Microsoft is up to these days with their DSL tools and to learn from the various other presentations and case studies. And as always I'm looking forwards to the "informal" learnings in the bars in the evenings. I'll be leading a panel at the end of the conference on "The State of the Art in Domain Specific Modeling" which I think (given the panelists I have so far) could be a really interesting sesison. If you're going to be in the UK, the entire conference is £485.00 + VAT and shorter packages start from £195.00 + VAT. Really, when you compare it to the cost of writing code by hand or developing and maintaining a badly architected or conceived generator, it's an excellent investment. I hope to see some of you there.

Code Generation 2009 - Schedule Announced

Thu, 05 Mar 2009 13:47:00 -0400

The schedule for Code Generation 2009 has just been released. This really is the best practitioner conference for code generation available. It runs 16th-18th June in Cambridge England and has many of the top experts in code generation, domain specific modeling and model driven development. If you want to learn more about generating code or building your applications more efficiently, it's a great way to save years of trial and error in just a day or two off of work. I'll be moderating a panel on The State of the Art in Domain Specific Modeling. Book now to save up to £110 by getting the early bird rate (ends March 31st) . . .

Webinar series on DSM

Wed, 04 Mar 2009 11:23:00 -0400

If you're interested in understanding more about the benefits of code generation, domain specific modeling and model driven development, JP Tolvanen from MetaCase is doing a webinar series starting on March 10th, 19th and 24th. The first webinar will cover:

Why and how the productivity of software development can be improved
Industry experiences (EADS, Lucent, Nokia)
What analysts say (Bloor, Burton, Cutter, Gartner)
How to introduce Domain-Specific Modeling into an organization

JP is an excellent speaker and really knows what he is talking about. Check out the details here.

Code Generation 2009 - Call for Speakers Closes Today!

Fri, 16 Jan 2009 17:14:00 -0400

If you want to submit a session to Code Generation 2009 in Cambridge England, today is your last chance! It's a really excellent conference, and this year Steve Kelly and Markus Völter - two of the top professionals in domain specific modeling/code gen will be doing the keynotes. It should be a great conference and it's really one of the few practitioner focused conferences focused in code generation and DSM.

Domain Specific Modeling - Key Vendors (and last nights deck)

Thu, 08 Jan 2009 14:07:00 -0400

If you're interested in code generation and/or domain specific modeling, there are some vendors you really need to check out - if only to understand how comprehensive the tooling offerings are starting to become and what it takes to do DSM well. This post lists some of the key DSM vendors together with a very quick summary of why you might want to check each one out . . . [More]

The Problem with getMetadata() and annotations (and possible solutions)

Tue, 22 Jul 2008 12:29:00 -0400

ColdFusion has a great getMetadata() method for getting metadata about an object. What's better, you can add and access arbitrary properties, so if you add a title="Whatever" to your cfcomponent tag, you can #getMetadata(Object).Title# for an instance of that component and it'll return your Title property, so this effectively allows for annotations in CF as Chris Scott pointed out a while ago. However, annotations don't inherit which causes a problem if you're using a extension to keep generated and custom code separate. Here's the problem and some possible solutions (as always, input appreciated!) . . . [More]

Metadata for Code Generation

Tue, 15 Jul 2008 12:53:00 -0400

Just as if you want to generate dynamic web pages you need some kind of source of data (perhaps a tbl_Product containing product details), if you want to generate code, you need a source of metadata. This posting looks at different approaches to working with metadata . . . [More]

Want to Get Started with Code Generation?

Tue, 15 Jul 2008 11:51:00 -0400

There are a number of specific code generation tools in the CF world, but there isn't a general purpose code generation tool. Over the next couple of days I'll be re-building and republishing CF Gen as a general purpose tool for code generation projects in CF. This posting introduces the steps required to implement a general purpose code generator and would be useful for anyone interested in getting started with code generation . . . [More]

The Benefits of Code Generation

Tue, 15 Jul 2008 11:03:00 -0400

A common question for an external DSL is whether to use a framework or code generation to implement the semantics of the language. Here's a summary of some of the relative benefits of the different approaches together with an explanation of why I'll be returning to some code generation this week after a nice long hiatus playing with runtime code synthesis. [More]

CF United Practical Code Generation Presentation

Fri, 20 Jun 2008 09:56:00 -0400

Here is the deck from my Practical Code Generation presentation yesterday. I rewrote the presentation recently to start off with basic "why generate" and to include the CF Template project to show how easy it is to generate ColdFusion code using CF. I then cover active vs passive code generation, ways to implement active code gen, and then get into metadata and indirectly into all of the abstract grammar vs. concrete syntax as a solution to the "how do we represent data for our generator" question. This summer I'll be re-releasing CF Gen - a general purpose framework for generating code using any type of metadata. Look out for some very cool tutorials and presentations next year that take you from "why generate" to advanced DSL issues using a specific sample and tooling to make it easy for people to get started with.

New Version of MetaEdit+ Released

Wed, 02 Apr 2008 16:21:00 -0400

I've always been impressed by the team at Metacase. They have already come up with solutions to problems like statement evolution in DSLs and inter-related Domain Specific Languages that are only starting to be seriously considered in the wider code generation/domain specific modeling community. They have been developing solutions for 100% code generation for over ten years in a wide range of domains and they have just released a new version of their flagship product today - MetaEdit+. I have not had a chance to play with the latest product, but it's something I am going to make the time to do this weekend. If I was ever to give up my homegrown system for commercial tooling, MetaCase is the company I'd very probably go with. If you have any interest in the possibilities of code generation, I'd thorough recommend checking out MetaCase's website. If nothing else, it's a great example of what can be done in terms of 100% code generation. And in case it isn't clear, I don't get paid for referrals/etc. I just think that they are *that* good. MetaEdit+ may or may not meet your use case, but it's definitelty worth checking out as an example of what can be done - even if you don't use it for your projects. Here's the information on the latest release.