The CDIF Family of Standards is primarily designed to be used as a description of a mechanism for transferring information between CASE tools. It facilitates a successful transfer when the authors of the importing and exporting tools have nothing in common except an agreement to conform to CDIF.

The CDIF Family of Standards includes an Integrated Meta-model and a Transfer Format definition. It also includes the specification of a meta-meta-model and associated rules that define a framework for the Integrated Meta-model and the Transfer Format. The language that is defined for the Transfer Format also has applicability as a general language for Import/Export for repositories. The CDIF Integrated Meta-model also has applicability as the basis of standard definitions for use in repositories.

The diagram in

Figure 1 depicts the various standards that comprise the CDIF Family of Standards. The shaded box depicts this Standard and its position in the CDIF Family of Standards.

This document introduces the CDIF Family of Standards.