Installation of Aocl Software

Aocl is an OO language that implements Relational Algebra with special operations for class diagram association traversals (in Relational Algebra terms, such operations are right-semijoins). An MDE tool, called Meta4, translates a text specification of a class diagram into a Java package that implements Aocl for that class diagram. Meta4 is build upon MDELite9.1, an MDE tool set that itself is based on Relational Algebra and relational database concepts. In general, you don't have to know MDELite9.1, but you do need it to run Meta4.

There are 3 NetBeans packages that are included in this distribution -- either source or binary.

MetaAllegory -- a NetBeans package that has 5 distinct Aocl applications. Only source for MetaAllegory is distributed as binary could not illustrate Aocl's usage.
Meta4 -- the NetBeans or binary distributable that generates Aocl packages
MDELite9.1 -- the foundation for Meta4 and MetaAllegory databases.

NOTE: I am (still) using NetBeans 8.2 -- Early versions of NetBeans released by Apache have been disappointing. I stay with NetBeans 8.2 now.

Installation notes are below:

Binaries for MDELite 9.1 and Meta4; NetBeans for MetaAllegory
NetBeans Source only for MDELite9.1, Meta4 and MetaAllegory

Post installation to see if things work correctly, do the following:

create an empty directory (call it D)
enter D
create file Alleg.cdspec.pl with a text file, with this contents:

% a comment -- this is the example used in the Aocl paper
% http://www.cs.utexas.edu/ftp/predator/20Aocl.pdf

classDiagram Alleg.

table(Emp,[name,age:int]).
table(Dept,[name,'city']).
table(Div,[name]).

assoc(Anc,Emp,parOf,BLANK,Emp,chldOf,BLANK).
assoc(Job,Emp,employs,BLANK,Dept,worksin,BLANK).
assoc(DD,Div,inDiv,BLACK_DIAMOND,Dept,hasDept,BLANK).

run this:

> java Meta4.Main                    // you'll get

Usage: Meta4.Main X.cdspec.pl [XAllegory]
       translate X.cdspec.pl to files in directory XAllegory
       1st argument must conform to format X.cdspec.pl
       2nd argument overrides default output directory (Allegory)

> java Meta4.Main Alleg.cdspec.pl
output is in directory Allegory/Alleg

If you get the output in magenta, you're ready to go! If not, please fix the reported errors, which are likely a problem with your CLASSPATH.

Binary Installation for MDELite 9.1 and Meta4

Comes in an AoclDistr directory as AoclDist/dist directory which has contents:

MDELite9.1 jar and Meta4.0 jar -- place these jars on your Java CLASSPATH
Meta4Docs -- html documentation for the Meta4 tool. Start with index.html and read CDSpec and Meta4.
MDELiteDocs -- html documentation for MDELite9.1. Likely you will not need this documentation.
libpl -- a directory of MDELite9.1 database schemas
lib -- a directory of jars that you may need to a NetBeans project CLASSPATH or to your Java CLASSPATH

there is one tool GraphViz that you may need to install (if you want to generate class diagrams) for Windows or Macs

Installation of NetBeans Projects

MDELite9.1

MDELite9.1 needs the following libraries to compile its source:

JUnit 4.12 jar (This is part of the NetBeans distribution)
Violet.jar (This is in the MDELite9.1/NeededJarFiles/ and in the AoclDist/dist/lib directory)
commons-io-2.6.jar (This is in the MDELite9.1/NeededJarFiles/ and in the AoclDist/dist/lib directory

MDELite9.1 needs the followiing libraries to compile its tests:

JUnit 4.12 jar (This is part of the NetBeans distribution)
Hamcrest 1.3 (This is part of the NetBeans distribution)
commons-io-2.6.jar (This is in the MDELite9.1/NeededJarFiles/ and in the AoclDist/dist/lib directory

Clean, Build, and Test. On a Windows Platform there should be no errors. (Macs, on the otherhand, may have errors. Contact me to help fix them).

Place the dist/MDELite9.1.jar file onto your classpath.

Meta4.0

Meta4.0 needs the following libraries to compile its source:

MDELite9.1 jar or NetBeans Project (The jar is in the AoclDist/dist/lib directory).
plantuml.jar (This is in the Meta4.0/NeededJarFiles/ and in the AoclDist/dist/lib directory)
install GraphViz if you need to generate graphical images of class diagrams
commons-io-2.6.jar (This is in the Meta4.0/NeededJarFiles/ and in the AoclDist/dist/lib directory

Meta4.0 needs the followiing libraries to compile its tests:

JUnit 4.12 jar (This is part of the NetBeans distribution)
Hamcrest 1.3 (This is part of the NetBeans distribution)

Clean, Build, and Test. On a Windows Platform there should be no errors -- unless you didn't install GraphViz, then expect a lot of errors. (Macs, on the otherhand, may have errors. Contact me to help fix them).

Place the dist/Meta4.0.jar file onto your classpath.

MetaAllegory

MetaAllegory needs the following libraries to compile its source:

MDELite9.1 jar or NetBeans Project (The jar is in the AoclDist/dist/lib directory).
Meta4.0 jar or its NetBeans Project (The jar is in the AoclDist/dist/lib directory).

MetaAllegory needs the followiing libraries to compile its tests:

JUnit 4.12 jar (This is part of the NetBeans distribution)
Hamcrest 1.3 (This is part of the NetBeans distribution)