On the Usage of Concrete Syntax in Model Transformation Rules

Graph transformations are one of the best known approaches for defining transformations in model-based software development. They are defined over the abstract syntax of source and target languages, described by metamodels. Since graph transformations are defined on the abstract syntax level, they can be hard to read and require an in-depth knowledge of the source and target metamodels. In this paper we investigate how graph transformations can be made much more compact and easier to read by using the concrete syntax of the source and target languages. We illustrate our approach by defining model refactorings.