2 research outputs found
Application Software, Domain-Specific Languages, and Language Design Assistants
While application software does the real work, domain-specific languages
(DSLs) are tools to help produce it efficiently, and language design assistants
in turn are meta-tools to help produce DSLs quickly. DSLs are already in wide
use (HTML for web pages, Excel macros for spreadsheet applications, VHDL for
hardware design, ...), but many more will be needed for both new as well as
existing application domains. Language design assistants to help develop them
currently exist only in the basic form of language development systems. After a
quick look at domain-specific languages, and especially their relationship to
application libraries, we survey existing language development systems and give
an outline of future language design assistants.Comment: To be presented at SSGRR 2000, L'Aquila, Ital
When and how to develop domain-specific languages
Domain-specific languages (DSLs) are languages tailored to a specific application domain. They offer substantial gains in expressiveness and ease of use compared with general purpose programming languages in their domain of application. DSL development is hard, requiring both domain knowledge and language development expertise. Few people have both. Not surprisingly, the decision to develop a DSL is often postponed indefinitely, if considered at all, and most DSLs never get beyond the application library stage. While many articles have been written on the development of particular DSLs, there is very limited literature on DSL development methodologies and many questions remain regarding when and how to develop a DSL. To aid the DSL developer, we identify patterns in the decision, analysis, design, and implementation phases of DSL development. Our patterns try to improve on and extend earlier work on DSL design patterns, in particular by Spinellis (2001). We also discuss domain analysis tools and language development systems that may help to speed up DSL development. Finally, we state a number of open problems