Software Language Engineering:Creating Domain-Specific Languages UsingMetamodels - Tapa blanda

"Kleppe provides a rewarding reading experience. She masterfully blends the valuable insights of both academics and practitioners, and her holistic approach to the subject will benefit software engineers with helpful insights into their craft and tools." -Patrick Bailey, Computer Science Department, Calvin College "With the advent of domain-specific languages in modern software development, an understanding of software language engineering becomes essential for developers. Kleppe offers an erudite and easy-going introduction to the key concepts of the subject." -Anders Hessellund, IT University of Copenhagen, Denmark "Ms. Kleppe has risen to the challenge by successfully combining the traditional theory of text-based programming languages with the brave new world of computer modeling languages into a single comprehensive and consistent conceptual framework. Furthermore, she has done so with wit and style. The text is eminently readable without being condescending, and should please both pragmatically inclined software developers as well as theoreticians who seek abstractions. This is a rare example of a technical book that fully realizes the adage that `things should be made as simple as possible, but no simpler.'" -Bran Selic, Malina Software Corp. "By finally gathering under one roof the philosophy, concepts, and terminology of language design-and by breaking down many of the needless barriers between graphical and textual languages-this book provides a good introduction for the novice and is a useful refresher for the expert." -Dr. Laurence Tratt, Bournemouth University, UK "Software Language Engineering is an excellent resource for teaching you how to create software languages that are specific to your domain by utilizing a domain modeling approach." -Dave Hendricksen, Software Architect "Languages to define procedures, objects, and intent have proliferated unchecked since Ada Byron. Lady Lovelace first realized in 1830 that some day machines would be programmed. The vast majority of these languages have failed to feature much in the way of design, despite pioneering work by computer scientists such as Niklaus Wirth. But if, as Wirth says, "... precision and perfection are not a dispensable luxury, but a simple necessity," then language design, in fact precise language design, becomes a critical skill. The advent of general language-modeling languages (like Meta Object Facility) and languages designed to be made domain-specific (like Unified Modeling Language) make this skill even more pressing. No one better understands these issues, or better presents a unified path to precise language design, than Anneke Kleppe. Using clear and concise examples and detailed explanations, this book gives the language designer (and in fact any architect or developer) the background, tools, and skills necessary to design general and domain-specific languages right, the first time. It belongs on the bookshelf of every systems architect and software developer." -Richard Mark Soley, Ph.D., Chairman and CEO, Object Management Group, Inc. "In this book Anneke brings together the "old" knowledge of programming languages with the "new" field of modeling languages. She makes it crystal clear how they complement each other instead of how they compete with each other. I especially like the new term "mogram," which is the generic term for both model and program. Anyone who is designing or implementing programming languages, modeling languages, or domain specific languages should read this book. It provides the reader with the fundamental background on software language engineering." -Jos Warmer, Partner at Odina

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.