Eclipse modeling technologies propelling the new generation of Space database editors
2EclipseCon France 2018
https://www.eclipsecon.org/france2018/session/eclipse-modeling-technologies-propelling-new-generation-space-database-editors
Speaker(s):
Vincent HEMERY (CS Systèmes d'Information)
Satellites database is a key element for the design and operation of a satellite. The French Space Agency (CNES https://cnes.fr/en) has designed several tools to manage them.
Especially the content of the database may be designed with the BEST-NG software.
BEST-NG aims at replacing the older BEST engineering tooling (https://logiciels.cnes.fr/content/best) which is no longer adapted to the requirements of new space projects in terms of data size and data formats. The new generation framework is being developed for the CNES by CS Systèmes d'Information.
Once developments are finalized, BEST-NG editor shall be made available as free software by the CNES.
I will introduce the cocktail of Eclipse modeling technologies used in our solution and why I recommended them for the project, both as Eclipse Modeling expert at CS Systèmes d'Information and as technical leader on the project:
Project overview and challenges: iterative steps of BEST-NG product, why developing a new editor ?
Multi-domain and multi-format issues: how we were able to solve major challenges using a profile approach and EMF Facet technology to capture the domains and format-oriented descriptions.
Developer tools: made with Sirius and Xtend.
Xtext: how we used Xtext, with several grammars extending each other, each with no direct dependency to the captured domains' plugins.
What's next: user-friendly HMI and other future developments.
No knowledge about the space domain is required to assist this talk ; actually even non-spatial editors could be developed on BEST-NG. On the other hand, basic knowledge of EMF and Xtext may help for full comprehension, as I will explain tricks used without explaining all the basics of these technologies.