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The stark contrast between the example XMI/XML in 2.6, “Example XMI? and the
equivalent HUTN in 2.7, “Equivalent HUTN? shows that a language generation
facility designed with sufficient consideration of usability can make significant advances in providing a human-usable mechanism
for the interchange of data with repositories. This usability comes about not by coincidence, but through the adoption of
a user-centric design approach, considering the needs of the user before the technical agenda of the system’s development.
The alignment of the generated language’s style with those of common programming languages provides the user with a familiar
frame of reference for learning the language. Also, careful consideration of the problems associated with existing programming
languages’ styles leads to a syntax that will be able to avoid these problems.
There are three properties that make the generation of HUTN languages particularly useful. The first is that it is generic,
in that it can provide a language for any model that can be specified using the MOF techniques. Secondly, the HUTN specification
can be fully automated, particularly useful for systems whose information models are undergoing rapid change. Thirdly, the
family of HUTN languages were designed to conform to human-usability criteria.