Hey!
Back after several months!
It is incredible the amount of work a change in your job position brings in its tail!

But for now, let's talk about the title.

I was recently reading a great blog from Michael Stal (which I'm adding to the interesting blog's section). The latest post is referring to Domain Specific Languages (DSL).

It is interesting, the list of examples of what can be considered a DSL. Being as attached to formality as I’m, my take is on the D and the L of the acronym.

First, it should be Domain driven. That means this “tool” will work inside a domain scope, referring to the elements that make sense inside that domain. If used as a communicator (as I will explain later) the reader may have knowledge in that domain. For instance, if you explain your solution to a manager in terms of resources, time and cost.

The second is the language constraint. That is, DSL is a language: a grammar and a vocabulary (plus maybe rules to expand that vocabulary). The language is used to describe things in sentences. Those things could be the problem or even the solution. That description can be read, understood and even executed.

I recall a very old issue of Dr. Dobbs that talked about mini-languages (or was it micro-languages?) that were script languages in essence. An example was the MS Excel macro language of that time. Specifically, the macro language had the typical constructions for conditions and loops, but the vocabulary was focused on cells, rows and columns, selections and texts, formulas and styles. The Domain was very explicit. It also mentioned another languages, some derived from C. those where subsets of the C language with some tweaks. Were those DSLs too?

Pages: 1 · 2