The following reviewer comments have been addressed in the revision: ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1. The structure of the paper should be improved The structure of the paper has been changed to present a more comprehensible view of POSAML. The paper now follows the following structure: Section 1 (Introduction) discusses problems that occur with traditional approaches to middleware provisioning, and how they can be addressed using visual modeling languages. Section 2 explains the constraints that visual modeling languages should satisfy in order to solve middleware provisioning challenges. Section 3 describes the design of POSAML, placing special emphasis on how the constraints specified in Section 2 have affected the design choices behind POSAML. A case study showcasing the use of POSAML in modeling a client-server application has also been presented in this section. Section 4 discusses the related work in this field. Section 5 presents the conclusion and planned future work. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 2. Better explanation of POSAML, including figures, models and meta-models Section 3 contains a description of POSAML. Reviewer comments about there being too many figures which have not been properly explained have been addressed in this section. The top-level meta-model has been presented and explained. Figures of low-level meta-models, that do not contribute directly toward the explanation of POSAML, have been removed. Sections 3.1, 3.2 and 3.3 explain how the design of POSAML satisfies the design constraints that are imposed on a visual modeling framework in the domain of middleware provisioning. With the help of an example, Section 3.4 explains how POSAML is used in middleware provisioning. Models of Reactor and Acceptor-Connector patterns are presented and explained in the context of this example. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 3. The paper should be self-contained enough so that a novice can understand the visual notations used in the design of POSAML. Section 3.2.1 provides a description of the Generic Modeling Environment (GME), which has been used to develop POSAML. This section also provides an explanation of notations such as metamodel, model, connections and aspects in the context of POSAML. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4. Discussion of the rationale behind POSAML design. Section 3 provides an explanation of the design of POSAML and specifies how specific constraints of middleware provisioning have affected the design choices made while developing POSAML. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 5. A case study of how POSAML is to be used should be presented. Section 3.4 presents an example of how POSAML can be used to model and configure a client-server application, using the Reactor and Acceptor-Connector pattern-based building blocks. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 6. Comparison of the UML approach toward middleware provisioning with POSAML. Related work regarding the use of UML in configuration and performance evaluation has been discussed in Section 4, paragraphs 2 and 3. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 7. Correction of typos and grammatical errors All typos and grammatical errors have been corrected. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 8. Fix the resolution of some figures We have addressed this to the best of our ability. Unnecessary figures have been removed. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 9. Evaluation of the approach The tool is being made available online and over time we will know more from our user community. -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------