Engr 691-06: Special Topics in Engineering Science
(Software Language Engineering)
Spring 2009
Lecture Notes and Web Resources

1. M. P. Ward. "Language-Oriented Programming," Software---Concepts and Tools, Vol. 15, No. 4, pp. 147-161, 1994. Also available as http://www.cse.dmu.ac.uk/~mward/martin/papers/middle-out-t.pdf.
2. Doug Rosenberg with Kendall Scott. "Domain Modeling," Chapter 2 in Use Case Driven Object Modeling with UML, Addison Wesley 1999.

Slides on domain modeling, course registration system example.

3. Doug Rosenberg with Kendall Scott. "Use Case Modeling," Chapter 3 in Use Case Driven Object Modeling with UML, Addison Wesley 1999.

Reference: Alistair Cockburn. "Introduction," Chapter 1 in Writing Effective Use Cases, Addison-Wesley, 2001.

4. James Coplien, Daniel Hoffman, and David Weiss. "Commonality and Variability in Software Engineering," IEEE Software. Vol. 15, No. 6, November 1998.
5. Jon Bentley. "Programming Pearls: Little Languages," Communications of the ACM, Vol. 29, No. 8, pp. 711-721, August 1986. [PDF]
6. H. C. Cunningham. "A Little Language for Surveys: Constructing an Internal DSL in Ruby," In Proceedings of the ACM SouthEast Conference, 6 pages, March 2008. [manuscript] [presentation]

H. Conrad Cunningham. "Domain-Specific Language for Simple Surveys"
[Ruby source code] [test DSL input file] [test DSL input file with errors]

7. Martin Fowler. Domain Specific Languages, book under development http://www.martinfowler.com/dslwip/, Accessed 1 May 2009.
Narratives
• An Introductory Example
  This is the initial source for the various State Machine and Computer Configuration DSL examples.
• Using Domain Specific Languages
• Implementing DSLs
• Implementing an Internal DSL
• Implementing an External DSL
• Choosing Between and Internal and External DSLs
  This section was not explicitly discussed, but it is a good section to read to help put the various DSL implementation techniques in context.
• Alternative Computational Models
  This section was not discussed except for the State Machine.
• Code Generation

Internal DSL Patterns

• Expression Bulder
  This basic technique is used extensively in the instructor's Scala DSL implementation examples.
• Function Sequence
  This technique was discussed in the context of the "Implementing Internal DSL" section. Function Sequence and Nested Functions may be the only techniques available in some languages for implementing an internal DSL syntax.
• Nested Function
  This technique was discussed in the context of the "Implementing Internal DSL" section.
• Method Chaining
  This technique is used in the instructor's method-chaining Scala DSL implementation examples based on Fowler's Computer Configuration and Email Message Builder examples.
• Object Scoping
  This technique is used in the instructor's nested-closure Scala DSL implementation example based on Fowler's Computer Configuration example. It is also used in the instructor's Ruby implementation of the Survey DSL. (See references to the instructor's 2006 Ruby class at the end of this page.
• Nested Closure
  This technique is used in the instructor's Nested-Closure Scala DSL implementation example based on Fowler's Computer Configuration example. It is also used in the instructor's Ruby implementation of the Survey DSL.

External DSL Patterns

• Delimiter Directed Translation
  These concepts were covered in conjunction with one of the Scala examples for the State Machine (Secret Panel) Controller DSL.
• Syntax Directed Translation
  These concepts were discussed informally along with some of the introductory narratives and in conjunction with the Scala parser combinator examples. Both examples used Synstax-Directed Translation with Ebedded Translation and Tree Construction.
• BNF
  This is a topic from the undergraduate courses on programming languages and formal languages for which the students in the class are expected to have a basic understanding.
• Tree Construction
  These concepts were covered indirectly in conjunction with the Scala Scala parser combinator examples.
• Embedded Translation
  These concepts were covered indirectly in conjunction with the Scala Scala parser combinator examples.

Code Generation Patterns

• Transformer Generation
  This technique is used in the instructor's code generation example based on Fowler's Secret Panel Static C Code Generation example.
• Model-Aware Generation Transformer Generation
  This technique is used in the instructor's code generation example based on Fowler's Secret Panel Static C Code Generation example. (The actual state machine code from this section has not yet been integrated with the results of the code generator for the instructor's example.)

Instructor's example Scala code for selected Fowler examples

• Computer Configuration DSLs
• Semantic Model:
  [Computer.scala]
• Method Chaining Internal DSL:
  [CompConfigChaining.scala]
• Nested Closures and Object Scoping Internal DSL:
  [CompConfigClosure.scala]
• Email Message Building Internal DSL using Method Chaining with Progressive Interfaces:
  
• DSL and Semantic Model:
  [EmailProgressive.scala]
• State Machine Model and "Secret Panel" Controller External DSLs
• State Machine Semantic Model:
  [StateMachine.scala] [StateMachineTest.scala] [CommandChannel.scala (mock)]
• XML-based External DSL:
  [StateMachineXMLTest.scala] [IncrementalStateMachineBuilder.scala]
  [input file SecretPanel.xml]
• Custom External DSL with a Delimiter-Directed parser:
  [DelimiterDSLTest.scala] [IncrementalStateMachineBuilder.scala]
  [input file CustomExternalStateMachineDSL.dsl]
• Custom External DSL with handcoded Recursive-Descent parser:
  [RecursiveDescentTest.scala] [IncrementalStateMachineBuilder.scala]
  [input file CustomExternalStateMachineDSL2.dsl]
• Custom External DSL (using Scala parser combinator library) with embedded state machine builder:
  [CombinatorParserBuilderTest.scala] [IncrementalStateMachineBuilder.scala]
  [input file CustomExternalStateMachineDSL2.dsl]
• Custom External DSL (using Scala parser combinator library) with full AST construction:
  [CombinatorParserASTTest.scala] [input file CustomExternalStateMachineDSL2.dsl]
• Static C Code Generator with Model-Aware target platform library:
  [StaticC_GeneratorTest.scala] [generated C output file output.c]
  Note: The needed framework code to run the C program is not yet available in this form. It needs to be reconstructed from Fowler's web site.

Other reference material (handed out but not discussed explicitly)

8. Martin Fowler. "One Lair and Twenty Ruby DSLs," Chapter 3 in The ThoughtWorks Anthology: Essays on Software Technology and Innovation, pp. 15-38, Pragmatic Bookshelf, 2008.
9. Steve Freeman and Nat Pryce. "Evolving an Embedded Domain-Specific Language in Java," In Proceedings of the ACM SIGPLAN International Conference on Object-Oriented Programming, Systems, Languages, and Applications (OOPSLA), 12 pages, 2006. (Online copy at http://www.jmock.org/oopsla2006.pdf.)

Relevant references from Fall 2006 Ruby Software Development class

10. Martin Fowler. Language Workbenches: The Killer-App for Domain Specific Languages? http://www.martinfowler.com/articles/languageWorkbench.html, June 2005.
    [author's website] [local copy]
11. Martin Fowler. Generating Code for DSLs, http://www.martinfowler.com/articles/codeGenDsl.html, June 2005.
    [author's website]
12. Conrad Cunningham. Ruby version of Fowler's DSL framework.
    
• DSL Reader Framework module:
  [ReaderFramework.rb source code]
• DSL Reader Utilities module, a mix-in used several places:
  [ReaderUtilities.rb source code]
• Simple test data files:
  [Data input file] [Text DSL description]
  [XML DSL description] [Ruby DSL description]
• Direct configuration and testing of Reader:
  [BuilderDirect.rb source code]
• Single-pass text DSL configuration and testing:
  [TextSinglePass.rb source code]
• Two-pass text and XML DSL configuration and testing:
  [TwoPass.rb source code]
  [class BuilderExternal source code generated by TwoPass.rb]
• Ruby internal DSL configuration and testing:
  [RubyDSL.rb source code]
13. Jim Weirich. "Rake Tutorial," "Rake User Guide," and "Rake by Example," 2005.
    (Basic ideas discussed.) [Ruby Rake web site]
14. Jim Freeze. Creating DSLs with Ruby, Artima Developer, http://www.artima.com/rubycs/articles/ruby_as_dsl.html, March 2006.
    [Artima website] [local printer-friendly copy]
15. Jamis Buck. Writing Domain Specific Languages, the { buckblogs :here }, 20 April 2006.
    [blog entry]

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