DeepRuby: Extending Ruby with Dual Deep Instantiation

Clabjects, the central construct of multi-level modeling, overcome the strict separation of class and object in conceptual modeling. Ruby, a dynamic object-oriented programming language, similarly treats classes as objects and thus appears as a natural candidate for implementing clabject-based modeling constructs. In this paper we introduce DeepRuby, a Ruby implementation of the core constructs of Dual Deep Instantiation: clabject hierarchies and attributes with separate source potency and target potency. DeepRuby represents clabjects at two layers: the clabject layer and the clabject facet layer. At the clabject facet layer, a clabject with maximum source potency i-1 and maximum target potency j-1 is represented by a matrix of i × j clabject facets organized using Ruby’s superclass and eigenclass constructs. Clabject facets can easily be extended with behaviour implemented in custom methods. Keywords: Multilevel Modeling, Deep Metamodeling, Programming Languages, Ruby, Object-oriented Programming