On the Role of Metadata in Visual Language Reuse and Reverse Engineering – An Industrial Case

Collecting metadata on a family of programs is useful not only for generating statistical data on the programs but also for future re-engineering and reuse purposes. In this paper we discuss an industrial case where a project library is used to store visual programs and a database to store the metadata on these programs. The visual language in question is a domain-specific language, Function Block Language (FBL) that is used in Metso Automation for writing automation control programs. For reuse, program analysis and re-engineering activities and various data and program analysis methods are applied to study the FBL programs. Metadata stored in a database is used to provide advanced program analysis support; from the large amount of programs, the metadata allows focusing the analysis to certain kinds of programs. In this paper, we discuss the role and usage of the metadata in program analysis techniques applied to FBL programs.