Towards end-user adaptable model versioning: The By-Example Operation Recorder

For the realization of language-independent, effective, and user-friendly model versioning systems, generic and efficient conflict detection is essential for correct and complete identification of conflicts caused by parallel modifications on one artifact. Usually, the genericity of the conflict detection costs a high price: language-specific operations and refactorings often remain undetected. Consequently, conflicts are not found or conflicts are wrongly indicated. To improve the quality of conflict detection, language-specific features have to be added. This involves usually much programming effort. We present a descriptive approach to define language-specific operations and refactorings by macro recording which allows an easy integration in generic conflict detection components.