Adding Behavior to Models

Domain Specific Languages (DSLs) play a cornerstone role in Model-Driven Software Development for representing models and metamodels. DSLs are usually defined in terms of their abstract and concrete syntax only. This allows the rapid and inexpensive development of DSLs and their associated tools (e.g., editors), but does not allow the representation of their behavioral semantics, something especially important for model operations like simulation and verification. In this paper we explore the use of Maude as a formal notation for describing models and metamodels, including the specification of their dynamic behavior.