General-purpose modelling (GPM) is the systematic use of a general-purpose modelling language to represent the various facets of an object or a system. Examples of GPM languages are:
The Unified Modelling Language (UML), an industry standard for modelling software-intensive systemsEXPRESS (ISO 10303-11), an international standard for the specification of data modelsIDEF, a group of languages from the 1970s that aimed to be neutral, generic and reusableGellish, an industry standard natural language oriented modeling language for storage and exchange of data and knowledge, published in 2005Lisp, a functional programming language designed for symbol processing, later extended with imperative abilitiesXML, a data modelling language now beginning to be used to model code (MetaL, Microsoft .Net[1])Contrast GPM languages with dedicated domain-specific modelling (DSM) languages, which like domain-specific languages (DSLs), are maturing and becoming a viable alternative to GPM languages.
