Microsoft has often held to the idea that many programming languages should bloom. In the arsenal there are VB, C++, C#, Visual FoxPro, and so on. In recent years, the company has taken the concept still further. It has asserted that there is special value in using a variety of Domain-Specific Languages [DSLs] and has begun to include DSL tools in the Visual Studio tool kit. With built-in Visual Studio modeling tools, you can define DSLs and generate your own visual designers.
Getting a handle on DSLs can be a chore. Fortunately, a new book by Steve Cook and other members of the VSTS team is now available on the topic. Here we offer an excerpt from Domain-Specific Development with Visual Studio DSL Tools.
In this introduction to Domain-Specific Development, the authors provide an overview, discussing the established notion of the general-purpose programming language and the emerging notion of Domain Specific Languages that are specifically formulated to deal with non-general problems. As they write: "Domain-Specific Development is based on the observation that many software development problems can more easily be solved by designing a special-purpose language." They point to the .NET class for regular expressions, spreadsheets, Windows Forms Designer, and certain 'Gang of Four' patterns as examples of the domain-specific approach.
The new VSTS DSL tools are there for you to play with, but the concepts behind them could use some fleshing out first. We hope you will find this book excerpt a worthwhile first step in evaluating this concept.
For more on this book, visit the publisher's page
http://www.awprofessional.com/bookstore/product.asp?isbn=0321398203&rl=1