Reusing pattern solutions in modeling: a generic approach based on a role language

Design patterns are a means to capture and reuse good practices and working solutions acquired by experts in various domains of specification and design. A lot of work has been done to try to express the solution part of design patterns in a computer understandable language but most of it is centered on the UML, especially on the Class diagrams. Model engineering techniques make it easier to design domain-specific languages and we think that design patterns can be identified in any engineering domain. So, a language able to describe accurately design pattern solutions for any specification or design language, along with its reuse process, would be of great interest. This paper presents Gipsie, a specification language that approaches, at an abstract level, this goal through the notion of generic roles, i.e. parameterized by any metamodel.