To Model, to Prompt, or to Code? The Choice Is Yours: A Multi-Paradigmatic Approach to Software Development

Thomas Buchmann, Felix Schwägerl, René Peinl

2025

Abstract

This paper considers three fundamental approaches to software development, namely manual coding, model-driven software engineering, and code generation by large language models. All of these approaches have their individual pros and cons, motivating the desire for an integrated approach. We present MoProCo, a technical solution to integrate the three approaches into a single tool chain, allowing the developer to split a software engineering task into modeling, prompting or coding sub-tasks. From a single input file consisting of static model structure, natural language prompts and/or source code fragments, Java source code is generated using a two-stage approach. A case study demonstrates that the MoProCo approach combines the desirable properties of the three development approaches by offering the appropriate level of abstraction, determinism, and dynamism for each specific software engineering sub-task.

Paper Citation

in Harvard Style

Buchmann T., Schwägerl F. and Peinl R. (2025). To Model, to Prompt, or to Code? The Choice Is Yours: A Multi-Paradigmatic Approach to Software Development. In Proceedings of the 20th International Conference on Software Technologies - Volume 1: ICSOFT; ISBN 978-989-758-757-3, SciTePress, pages 296-303. DOI: 10.5220/0013557100003964

in Bibtex Style

@conference{icsoft25,
author={Thomas Buchmann and Felix Schwägerl and René Peinl},
title={To Model, to Prompt, or to Code? The Choice Is Yours: A Multi-Paradigmatic Approach to Software Development},
booktitle={Proceedings of the 20th International Conference on Software Technologies - Volume 1: ICSOFT},
year={2025},
pages={296-303},
publisher={SciTePress},
organization={INSTICC},
doi={10.5220/0013557100003964},
isbn={978-989-758-757-3},
}

in EndNote Style

TY - CONF

JO - Proceedings of the 20th International Conference on Software Technologies - Volume 1: ICSOFT
TI - To Model, to Prompt, or to Code? The Choice Is Yours: A Multi-Paradigmatic Approach to Software Development
SN - 978-989-758-757-3
AU - Buchmann T.
AU - Schwägerl F.
AU - Peinl R.
PY - 2025
SP - 296
EP - 303
DO - 10.5220/0013557100003964
PB - SciTePress