What is MOF?

Managed Object Format (MOF) files are an easy way to create and register providers, event categories, and events.

Let's look at "MOF":

Meta-object tools originated from Unified Modeling Language (UML). ObjectManagementGroup|OMG needs a metamodel structure to define UML.

MOF is a closed metamodel structure, which defines the M3 model that describes itself. MOF is a strict metamodel architecture, and each model element of each layer corresponds strictly to the upper model element. MOF only provides methods to define abstract syntax of structure or language and data. When defining the metamodel, MOF defines programming language syntax similar to EBNF layer. MOF is a domain-specific language (DSL) used to define meta-models, just as DSL is used to define grammar for EBNF. Similarly, MOF itself can be defined.

MOF is now an international standard: ISO/IEC 19502: 2005 Information Technology-Meta-Object Facility (MOF).

MOF can be regarded as a standard for writing meta-models, for example, modeling abstract syntax of domain-specific languages. Kermeta extends MOF and can perform actions attached to the EMOF metamodel, so that DSL operation semantics can be modeled and easily explained.