Extensions and Scalability Experiments of a Generic Model-Driven Architecture for Variability Model Reasoning

Until recently, the state-of-the-art of Software Product Line (SPL) configuration and verification automation consisted of a collection of ad-hoc approaches tightly coupling a single input Variability Modeling Language (VML) with a single constraint solver. To remedy this situation, a novel generic model-driven architecture was then proposed that enables using a variety of VMLs and solvers. The key ideas of this proposal were (a) the use of a standard logical language (CLIF) as a pivot between VMLs and solvers, and (b) the use of a standard data exchange format (JSON) to explicilty and declaratively specify the abstract syntax and semantics of the VMLs to be used in an SPL engineering project and the automated reasoning task to be performed by the solvers.