The MetaEdit+ Reporting Language, MERL, is used to define generators for code and documentation generation, generator-based text fields in symbols, and generator identifiers for non-property types. The code and document generators are defined using the Generator Editor (as explained in Section 5.1). The generators for the text fields in symbols are entered in the text field formatting dialog within the Symbol Editor, and the generators for non-property identifiers are entered in the metamodeling tools (for more information about these, please see “Generators in symbols” in Section 3.2.7 and “Set Identifier Generator” in Section 2.1.5).

In this section, the MERL language and its use will be described from the Generator Editor’s point of view, with occasional notes where the other two uses of generators work differently.