Pedro Silva's Blog : DSL Tools

The DSL Beta1 SDK is out!

PedroSilva — Fri, 22 May 2009 19:24:00 GMT

Well lots of announcements this week with the VS Beta coming out... so here's one more:

The Visual Studio 2010 DSL SDK Beta1 is available for download! This one is near and dear to me because I've worked on DSL Tools in the past, and it's wonderful to see another toolkit out for Beta1.

So, if you're a veteran of Doman Specific Languages development or interested in learning to build cool graphical designers for Visual Studio, you should download and try this new release. For more information about the specifics of this release, check out Jean-Marc's blog.

T4 Editor Beta Released

PedroSilva — Thu, 18 Oct 2007 23:35:00 GMT

The folks at Clarius have an update to their T4 template editor. They're now in Beta. It's a very useful editor for anyone doing large amounts of T4 template editing with good factoring of template code vs script and color coding of keywords.

DSL Tools Forum Moved

PedroSilva — Mon, 15 Oct 2007 19:05:00 GMT

In case you're looking for the DSL Tools forum and can't find it at its last location, it has moved into the VSX (stands for Visual Studio Extensibility :) forum, so you can ask your DSL-related questions there. And, here's the new link: http://forums.microsoft.com/MSDN/ShowForum.aspx?ForumID=57&SiteID=1.

Microsoft Moves Ahead with Software Modeling

PedroSilva — Wed, 01 Aug 2007 18:57:00 GMT

There's an interesting story in eWeek about Microsoft's work on Software Modeling. A lot of discussion about the future, but DSL Tools is really the present and the tip of the spear for a lot of the work that Microsoft is doing in software modeling. As the DSL runtime evolves we'll get more functionality that will help with modeling, including integrating DSLs in more closely with Software Factories.

Also, as more groups begin producing models based on DSLs, we'll start to see a real ecosystem of designers that can be used, reused for specific purposes, and extended by customers.

So, what do you as customers think of the move to software modeling? And, coding by designers and factories? Is this really where the future of software development is heading? I'd love to hear your thoughts on the matter...

DSL Designer for WIX

PedroSilva — Thu, 12 Jul 2007 18:31:00 GMT

Mark passed around a link to a cool new DSL that lets you generate the WIX for a setup project from a diagram (or model) of your set of applications. This looks like a really cool use of DSL Tools, and it's on CodePlex for anyone that wants to have a look...

This got me thinking... There's been a lot of talk about the DSL runtime itself. But, I was interested in what DSL designers are being created out there by our customers. So, if you've been working on a cool DSL let me know. And, I'll try to put together a list of the other cool designers that are out there.

T4 Editor by Clarius

PedroSilva — Fri, 29 Jun 2007 00:45:00 GMT

Clarius has recently released their latest version of a T4 template editor - something quite useful for those DSL authors doing very much code generation. The editor includes:

- Syntax coloring

- Intellisense/Code completion

- Collapsible regions of code blocks

- Design-time preview of your transformation with dynamic properties support through the Properties window.

DSL Tools for Orcas

PedroSilva — Mon, 11 Jun 2007 18:50:00 GMT

In case you've all been wondering what has been happening with DSL Tools since v1 shipped, we've been working on getting it into the Orcas releases. The DSL runtime is now in the VS box itself, so it's no longer necessary to install the runtime with your designers. And, the new runtime has been in the latest CTP and Betas of Orcas. The DSL authoring is still shipping as part of the VS SDK, and was recently release in the VS SDK Orcas June CTP. You can get it from MSDN Download Center.

DSL Designer Screenshots

PedroSilva — Tue, 28 Mar 2006 21:04:00 GMT

Kristoffer, a UI designer working with the DSL Tools team, recently posted a screen shot and some questions about the new DSL Designer that we're working on. If you'd like a sneak peek, have a look. Also, if you have any comments for him about the new design, leave him a comment.

New DSL: VSTS Work Item Type Designer

PedroSilva — Tue, 21 Mar 2006 00:05:00 GMT

Darren Jefford just posted about the Work Item Type Designer that he's been working on for a while. This designer was built using early versions of the DSL Toolkit, and now he's updating it to the Feb CTP. On the bright side, there was a lot of custom code that he no longer needed because many of those things have been rolled into the toolkit.

The Work Item Type Designer allows you to extend the VSTS work item system, by defining your own work item types and the state transitions that the work items may go through. Currently, this is only allowed in Team Foundation Server by writing a complex XML file by hand, but Darren's designer allows an admin to do this through a graphical designer. It's nice to have other parts of Team System starting to look at how they can use DSL Tools to expose some of their functionality.

Using Gaston's T4 Editor with GAT

PedroSilva — Sat, 18 Mar 2006 00:01:00 GMT

Gaston recently posted how to use his T4 template editor to work with GAT (Microsoft's Guidance Automation Toolkit) templates. DSL Tools and GAT both use the T4 text templating engine, so if you learn to write templates in one, you can use that knowledge for the other.

And, now, you can use Gaston's T4 editor for both, too.

Programmatically Loading DSL Domain Model

PedroSilva — Tue, 14 Mar 2006 20:23:00 GMT

Daniel has a great post about how to programmatically load a DSL domain model file. This is useful in case you want to process the domain model file outside of the DSL designer, like in a GAT or VS add-in, or run across the domain model data in a command-line tool.

Customization: Setting Position of a Shape When Its Created

PedroSilva — Fri, 24 Feb 2006 21:14:00 GMT

There have been several questions on the DSL Tools forum about how to set shapes at specific locations when they're create. That type of custom placement that is definitely possible to do in our diagrams. Our modeling system has a feature called Rules that are fired within, or at the end of, a transaction (but before it's complete), this allows you to respond to changes in the model and make other changes in response because you're still within the transaction context. Therefore, to do that custom placement of shapes, you need to create a Rule.

A Rule is a class that derives from one of the Rules defined in the modeling system (in this case the AddRule), and overrides one or more of its methods (ElementAdded). It also needs a RuleOn attribute placed on the class. The attribute allows you to say what type the Rule works one and when the rule should fire (inline, local commit, and top level commit). Here's some code for such a rule:

/// <summary>

/// Rule to call programmatically set the position of a Shape when

/// it's added to the diagram (directly or indirectly). This rule

/// gets called when the transaction's top level commit is called.

/// </summary>

[RuleOn(typeof(ParentShapeContainsNestedChildShapes), FireTime = TimeToFire.TopLevelCommit)]

public class ShapeAddedToDiagramRule : AddRule

{

private double offset = 0.25;

private PointD location = new PointD(0.25, 0.25);

public override void ElementAdded(ElementAddedEventArgs e)

{

Shape shape = null;

ParentShapeContainsNestedChildShapes nestedLink = e.ModelElement as ParentShapeContainsNestedChildShapes;

if (nestedLink != null)

{

shape = nestedLink.NestedChildShapes as Shape;

}

if (shape != null && shape.Diagram != null)

{

// Expand the shape and move it to its new position

shape.IsExpanded = true;

shape.Location = new PointD(location.X, location.Y + offset);

// Adjust the height offset for the size of the shape

// (I'm assuming that the DefaultContainerMargin

// provides for a decent spacing between the shapes)

offset += shape.Size.Height + shape.Diagram.DefaultContainerMargin.Height;

}

The above code starts at the top-left of the diagram and moves additional shapes down the diagram. You'll need to specify the starting offset and location (and probably reset it), because this code just always assumes the top left of the diagram, but it gives an idea of how to get this working.

You also need to the the modeling system know that this rule exists. Rules we generate in code automatically get added to the modeling system, but not custom written ones. To do this, you need to let the modeling system know to add your new rule, like this:

namespace MicrosoftCorporation.Language1.Designer

{

internal static partial class GeneratedMetaModelTypes

{

// If you have hand-written rules, you define a

// partial GeneratedMetaModelTypes and put the types

// of the rules as internal static fields of the class.

// For example:

// internal static Type MyRuleType = typeof(MyRule);

internal static Type ShapeAddedToDiagramRuleType = typeof(ShapeAddedToDiagramRule);

}

Define an internal field for your rule type, make sure the namespace points to the one for your Designer (this class is defined as partial in the DesignerMetaModelTypes.csfile in your project), and the modeling system goes through all of the fields on this class and adds them to the notification list.

With all of this custom code, it's best that you put it into a separate code file, sothat it doesn't get deleted whenever you transform all of the templates again.

Edward Bakker on Using DSL Toolkit

PedroSilva — Fri, 03 Feb 2006 20:19:00 GMT

Edward Bakker has a great blog that's largely about his adventures in using the DSL Toolkit to create some domain-specific languages. He's done an 18-post series so far on DSL Tools, ranging from just getting started and introductory information to creating a Service Contract Description Language and designer.

It's really great to see how people are using DSL Tools to build some very cool stuff...

Customization: Setting EndPoint positions on a Connector.

PedroSilva — Thu, 02 Feb 2006 00:14:00 GMT

There was a question on our forums about how to set the end points of a Connector programmatically, rather than having them calculated dynamically. This is possible to do in DSL Tools with some custom code.

You can set the FromEndPoint and ToEndPoint properties on Connector. However, end points also have a fixed flag. By default, the FixedFrom and FixedTo properties are set to VGFixedCode.Algorithm, so the routing engine comes along later, during the Transaction.Commit, and wipes out the From/ToEndPoints that you set. To use the end point you specified, you also need to set those fixed properties to VGFixedCode.Caller. Then, the routing engine will use the end points you provide.

Here's a code example below that makes the lines route to specific points:

public partial class ExampleConnector : Connector
{
  public override void OnShapeInserted()
  {
   base.OnShapeInserted();

   using (Transaction t = this.Store.TransactionManager.BeginTransaction("ChangeFromEndPoint"))
   {
    this.FromEndPoint = new PointD(this.FromShape.AbsoluteBounds.Center.X,
              this.FromShape.AbsoluteBounds.Top);
    this.FixedFrom = Microsoft.VisualStudio.Modeling.Diagrams.GraphObject.VGFixedCode.Caller;

    this.ToEndPoint = new PointD(this.ToShape.AbsoluteBounds.Left,
              this.ToShape.AbsoluteBounds.Center.Y);
    this.FixedTo = Microsoft.VisualStudio.Modeling.Diagrams.GraphObject.VGFixedCode.Caller;

    t.Commit();
   }
  }
}

Doing so produces Connectors that look like this (notice that all connectors starte and end at the same point of either side):

Typically, free-form connectors look like the following:

And, as an added bonus, I got to use the new image gallery features on MSDN blogs to show the pretty pictures. :)

Say Hi to George

PedroSilva — Tue, 06 Dec 2005 19:38:00 GMT

I just noticed that George Mathew recently started blogging. He's also a developer on DSL Tools. He's worked on the text templating engine and the underlying domain model infrastructure. Stop by and say hello.