There it is. The first version of the ‘Domain-Specific Language Engineering’ paper. It is still somewhat rough around the edges and can use more meta-level reflection. Therefore, this is ‘Mark I’. I expect at least another version, and maybe two before the final one. Comments on any aspect of the work would be greatly appreciated. Here is a quote from the introduction:
In recent years there has been an increasing momentum (some call it hype) for approaches with names as domain-specific languages, model-driven architecture, software factories, language workbenches, and intentional programming. While there are differences between these approaches (mostly of a technological nature?), the common goal is to achieve a higher-level of abstraction in software development by abstracting from low-level boilerplate code. (Making domain-specific languages the approach of my choice, I'll use its terminology from now on.) The idea of domain-specific languages has been around for a long time, but what seems to be new in the current wave, is the requirement to use DSL design and implementation as a standard tool in the software development process. The challenge then is to develop a systematic method for designing new domain-specific languages. This tutorial describes an experiment in DSL design and implementation. The experiment is simply to take a new domain (web applications), to develop a DSL (set of DSLs) for this domain, and observe the process to extract ingredients for a standard process. The target of the experiment are web applications with a rich domain model that can serve as content management system editable via the browser, but also allow querying and aggretation based on the structure of the data. The tutorial takes one particular combination of technologies. The DSL will be a textual language. The generator targets Java with a certain collection of frameworks for implementation of web applications. The DSL is implemented using Stratego/XT, SDF, and Nix.
Eelco Visser. Domain-Specific Language Engineering. A Case Study in Agile DSL Development (Mark I). Technical Report TUD-SERG-2007-017, Software Engineering Research Group, Delft University of Technology, June 2007. To appear in the proceedings of the Summer School on Generative and Transformational Techniques in Software Engineering (GTTSE’07). (pdf)