This is the eBook version of the printed book. If the print book includes a CD-ROM, this content is not included within the eBook version.

Software practitioners are rapidly discovering the immense value of Domain-Specific Languages (DSLs) in solving problems within clearly definable problem domains. Developers are applying DSLs to improve productivity and quality in a wide range of areas, such as finance, combat simulation, macro scripting, image generation, and more. But until now, there have been few practical resources that explain how DSLs work and how to construct them for optimal use.

 

Software Language Engineering fills that need. Written by expert DSL consultant Anneke Kleppe, this is the first comprehensive guide to successful DSL design. Kleppe systematically introduces and explains every ingredient of an effective

language specification, including its description of concepts, how those concepts are denoted, and what those concepts mean in relation to the problem domain. Kleppe carefully illuminates good design strategy, showing how to maximize the flexibility of the languages you create. She also demonstrates powerful techniques for creating new DSLs that cooperate well with general-purpose languages and leverage their power.

 

Completely tool-independent, this book can serve as the primary resource for readers using Microsoft DSL tools, the Eclipse Modeling Framework, openArchitectureWare, or any other DSL toolset. It contains multiple examples, an illustrative running case study, and insights and background information drawn from Kleppe’s leading-edge work as a DSL researcher.

 

Specific topics covered include

 

• Discovering the types of problems that DSLs can solve, and when to use them
• Comparing DSLs with general-purpose languages, frameworks, APIs, and other approaches
• Understanding the roles and tools available to language users and engineers
• Creating each component of a DSL specification
• Modeling both concrete and abstract syntax
• Understanding and describing language semantics
• Defining textual and visual languages based on object-oriented metamodeling and graph transformations
• Using metamodels and associated tools to generate grammars
• Integrating object-oriented modeling with graph theory
• Building code generators for new languages
• Supporting multilanguage models and programs

 

This book provides software engineers with all the guidance they need to create DSLs that solve real problems more rapidly, and with higher-quality code.

Anneke Kleppe has over twenty years of experience in IT. She started her career in telecommunications and then worked as an independent consultant with her own company, Klasse Objecten. She has coached and trained employees of companies working with MDA, OCL, and UML. Currently, she is a consultant at Capgemini and is responsible for the introduction of domain-specific languages for various clients.

Spin your own web! Free CD-ROM included.

More people are overcoming their digital fears and producing Internet content rather than just absorbing it. Whether their product is a collection of essays, stories, reviews, jokes, or shopping lists, they want to share it with everyone—from family and friends to strangers across the globe. How do they do it? By starting right here. The Complete Idiot’s Guide® to Creating a Web Page and Blog—the only book of its kind— will help anyone build and maintain an Internet website or blog. Coverage includes:

• Step-by-step instructions for building a site from the ground up
• Important HTML tags
• Tips on using fonts, colors, and images
• Incorporating tables, forms, style sheets, and JavaScripts
• The new blog technology
• Plus! A “Webmaster’s Toolkit” on a companion CD-ROM, providing files used in this book.

Paul McFedries is the author of The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Microsoft Windows XP, and the proprietor of Word Spy, a blog devoted to recently coined words and phrases which has been featured in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, and Time.

Spin your own web! Free CD-ROM included.

More people are overcoming their digital fears and producing Internet content rather than just absorbing it. Whether their product is a collection of essays, stories, reviews, jokes, or shopping lists, they want to share it with everyone—from family and friends to strangers across the globe. How do they do it? By starting right here. The Complete Idiot’s Guide® to Creating a Web Page and Blog—the only book of its kind— will help anyone build and maintain an Internet website or blog. Coverage includes:

• Step-by-step instructions for building a site from the ground up
• Important HTML tags
• Tips on using fonts, colors, and images
• Incorporating tables, forms, style sheets, and JavaScripts
• The new blog technology
• Plus! A “Webmaster’s Toolkit” on a companion CD-ROM, providing files used in this book.

Paul McFedries is the author of The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Microsoft Windows XP, and the proprietor of Word Spy, a blog devoted to recently coined words and phrases which has been featured in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, and Time.

Spin your own web! Free CD-ROM included.

More people are overcoming their digital fears and producing Internet content rather than just absorbing it. Whether their product is a collection of essays, stories, reviews, jokes, or shopping lists, they want to share it with everyone—from family and friends to strangers across the globe. How do they do it? By starting right here. The Complete Idiot’s Guide® to Creating a Web Page and Blog—the only book of its kind— will help anyone build and maintain an Internet website or blog. Coverage includes:

• Step-by-step instructions for building a site from the ground up
• Important HTML tags
• Tips on using fonts, colors, and images
• Incorporating tables, forms, style sheets, and JavaScripts
• The new blog technology
• Plus! A “Webmaster’s Toolkit” on a companion CD-ROM, providing files used in this book.

Paul McFedries is the author of The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Microsoft Windows XP, and the proprietor of Word Spy, a blog devoted to recently coined words and phrases which has been featured in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, and Time.

Spin your own web! Free CD-ROM included.

More people are overcoming their digital fears and producing Internet content rather than just absorbing it. Whether their product is a collection of essays, stories, reviews, jokes, or shopping lists, they want to share it with everyone—from family and friends to strangers across the globe. How do they do it? By starting right here. The Complete Idiot’s Guide® to Creating a Web Page and Blog—the only book of its kind— will help anyone build and maintain an Internet website or blog. Coverage includes:

• Step-by-step instructions for building a site from the ground up
• Important HTML tags
• Tips on using fonts, colors, and images
• Incorporating tables, forms, style sheets, and JavaScripts
• The new blog technology
• Plus! A “Webmaster’s Toolkit” on a companion CD-ROM, providing files used in this book.

Paul McFedries is the author of The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Microsoft Windows XP, and the proprietor of Word Spy, a blog devoted to recently coined words and phrases which has been featured in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, and Time.