Abstraction of Computer Language Patterns: The Inference of Textual Notation for a DSL

Abstract

In general, designing a domain-specific language (DSL) is a complicated process, requiring the cooperation of experts from both application domain and computer language development areas. One of the problems that may occur is a communication gap between a domain expert and a language engineer. Since domain experts are usually non-technical people, it might be difficult for them to express requirements on a DSL notation in a technical manner. Another compelling problem is that even though the majority of DSLs share the same notation style for representing the common language constructs, a language engineer has to formulate the specification for these constructs repeatedly for each new DSL being designed. The authors propose an innovative concept of computer language patterns to capture the well-known recurring notation style often seen in many computer languages. To address the communication problem, they aim for the way of proposing a DSL notation by providing program examples as they would have been written in a desired DSL. As a combination of these two ideas, the chapter presents a method for example-driven DSL notation specification (EDNS), which utilizes computer language patterns for semi-automated inference of a DSL notation specification from the provided program examples.