Alan Cameron Wills - Domain Specific Languages

What's the word "Model" useful for? People use it for all sorts of stuff, usually as distinct from "Program". Here's some definitions, ending up with the one I like best. Model = pictures (my score: 4/10) UML is 'modeling' because it's mostly...

Grady Booch writes : Will's blog had a number of errors of fact, Ouch! Well, permit me to unruffle my feathers a bit. It's more a difference of emphasis. But let's start at the top. GB> I'm disappointed that Microsoft choose the term "software factory...

Here's what we've been working on for a while: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=57A14CC6-C084-48DD-B401-1845013BF834&displaylang=en It is an early step towards the vision described in the Greenfield and Short's Software Factories...

This is an example of a Ladder Diagram from the IEC1131 standard: I find this fascinating! As a computer programmer, it would never have occurred to me to represent logic expressions in this way. But to electrical engineers used to laying out circuits...

RobR > Tools built on the type of meta-technology you talk about are not new. Agreed! Of course, I'm working at Microsoft rather than at a university, so utter novelty is not a claim. In fact, we hope to use the best ideas and experience that have...

RobR > I think for many language definition purposes, UML stereotypes are in fact much more useful than you think.I think for many language definition purposes, UML stereotypes are in fact much more useful than you think. My feeling is that it's not...

RobR writes: re: DSL tools available I'd be interested to know how your tools differ from doing the following: - creating a bunch of stereotypes in a UML tool (possibly with some icons to make it look prettier). So for baggage handling I could build various...

In my previous job, I used to go around showing people some rather neat techniques for doing requirements analysis (and in particular the Catalysis method I created with Desmond D'Souza). One of the big frustrations was that we didn't have any tools to...

The keynote talk at the UML conference a couple of days ago was by Krzysztof Czarnecki , on Generative Programming (title of his book with Ulrich Eisenecker , from 2000). Generative Programming is about using Domain-Specific Languages --- from simple...

Simon Johnston of IBM has written a note about DSLs (domain specific languages) compared with UML. One of the excellent points he makes is that very few tools support refinement properly -- that is, the layering of a design from abstract requirements...

General info on DSLS: http://www.program-transformation.org/Transform/DomainSpecificLanguages http://c2.com/cgi/wiki?DomainSpecificLanguage http://www.c2.com/cgi/wiki?LittleLanguage http://c2.com/cgi/wiki?InterpreterPattern MetaCase...

One thing to think about when inventing your domain specific language: what general sort of syntax do you want? Here are some options: Text -- like, y'know, strings of characters in words separated by spaces and punctuation. Maybe there is some...

An article by Steve Cook and me about domain specific languages appears in the excellent online CBDi Forum Journal today. Read more on the topic at Keith Short's blog .

At OOPSLA 2001, a panel of the most distinguished methodologists of the day was asked "How would you do agile development where the team are a geographically distributed workforce, each working in his own home?" They more or less unanimously said ...

Don't do big projects. Small ones have a lot more chance of success. In a small group, people are more likely to understand the overall requirements and architecture, so they understand better how their work fits into the whole thing. They don't need...

At OT2004 , I ran a workshop on domain specific languages. OT is where the UK experts in software development gather each year, and so the people attending a workshop generally know more than whoever is running it. It's a great way to get some good ideas...