Domain Specific Languages

Domain Specific Languages, or DSLs are small, high-level symbolic software languages that can represent concepts in a specific problem domain. An example of a domain specific language for comparing texts might look like this:

Alex has an hypothesis that this paragraph 
  contradicts chapter 01, section 01 of Adam Smith's
  "Theory of Moral Sentiments"

Alex has an hypothesis that this section
  is concordant with Martin Luther King's 
  "Why We Can't Wait"

The language is highly customized for a given problem domain, but not capable of determining the structural requirements of a design for a load-bearing wall. That sort of thing could be written in an alternate DSL.

Part of the goal of the CORM project and those related to it is to build the infrastructure for quickly generating useful Domain Specific Languages.

Language Oriented Programming

• Martin Fowler writes about Language Workbenches
• Alex writes about Expresso, a DSL language workbench for the Drools rule engine.