A Synopsis on Import Statements in Modeling Languages

The composition of different source artifacts is a fundamental mechanism for modularization and reuse in many software languages and essential for separating distinct concerns and building reference-able libraries. This form of composition relies on importing foreign artifacts, i.e., including code, models, and concepts. Although importing artifacts is a concept found frequently in software languages, especially programming languages, there are different ways of doing so. Current realizations are highly verbose, and there is no uniform application concept for imports within the modeling discipline. In this paper, we analyze different approaches to realizing imports for software languages and identify their advantages and drawbacks. Based on this information, we elaborate on the beneficial features of different modeling circumstances. This collection supports future import realizations for languages by guiding the selection of the correct technique concerning different goals and corresponding features.