Towards a Formal Specification of Multi-paradigm Modelling

The notion of a programming paradigm is used to classify programming languages and their accompanying workflows based on their salient features. Similarly, the notion of a modelling paradigm can be used to characterise the plethora of modelling approaches used to engineer complex Cyber-Physical Systems (CPS). Modelling paradigms encompass formalisms, abstractions, workflows and supporting tool(chain) s. A precise definition of this modelling paradigm notion is lacking however. Such a definition will increase insight, will allow for formal reasoning about the consistency of modelling frameworks and may serve as the basis for the construction of new modelling, simulation, verification, synthesis, ...environments to support design of CPS . We present a formal framework aimed at capturing the notion of modelling paradigm, as a first step towards a comprehensive formalisation of multi-paradigm modelling. Our formalisation is illustrated by CookieCAD, a simple Computer-Aided Design paradigm used in the development of cookie stencils.