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DSL and UML

 
Greenhorn
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Hi,
I need references for DSL (Domain Specific Language) and I want to know what its relationships with UML ?

Best regards
Genefer.
 
author
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Google came up with http://martinfowler.com/bliki/DomainSpecificLanguage.html as one article on the subject - there is certainly more to find.

As far as I know, there is no direct connection between UML and DSL at all. Did you expect one?
 
Ranch Hand
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i think that the relationship between UML and DSL is that you can express a DSL with UML. nothing more and nothing less.

though UML can be a good choice for it can be extended/reused well and has a powerful metamodel. but you should not think that UML is always the best choice. often textual represantations of a DSL can head you to a target quicker and easier.
 
Bartender
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Originally posted by manuel aldana:
often textual representations of a DSL can head you to a target quicker and easier.



Concepts of the domain in question are expressed and manipulated directly following the domains convention's rather than indirectly in some general purpose programming language or graphical notation. The resulting script should therefore be clearer to someone who is knowledgeable in the domain, more concise and is often completed much more quickly.

Many domain experts don't want to learn UML to then awkwardly represent their domain or having to come up with a new UML profile. They rather deal with the problem in terms they understand. A textual DSL is often the quickest solution. A graphical DSL only makes sense if there is a pre-existing graphical notation that can be easily manipulated to convey the necessary actions.

Back in 1986 Jon Bentley called DSLs Little Languages.

Programming Pearls 2e (amazon US) p.28:


But special-purpose languages are still useful in certain applications. I despise having to use a mouse to poke at a faux calculator on the screen when I really want to type straightforward mathematics like
n=1000000
47 * n * log(n)/log2(2)



Ultimately Domain Driven Design (DDD) tries to approximate the utility of a full blown DSL in terms of OO - it is usually employed when a domain model does not exist or existing ones are inadequate for the task at hand.
 
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As additionnal reference, you could find interesting material on DSL:
* Domain-Specific Modeling for Full Code Generation
http://www.methodsandtools.com/archive/archive.php?id=26
* Creating a Domain-Specific Modeling Language for an Existing Framework
http://www.methodsandtools.com/archive/archive.php?id=50

On the relationship / differences between DSL and UML, you will find an interesting blog post on http://blogs.sun.com/treyspiva/entry/thoughs_on_domain_specific_languages

Good Luck ;o)
 
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Call me jaded, but I wouldn't worry about it too much. Yes, it's interesting to argue about the shapes of bubbles and lines over a beer (or preferably a single malt scotch), but in the end it doesn't really matter. People are going to stand around a shared modeling environment such as a whiteboard or paper, they'll talk, they'll sketch, they'll eventually come to a conclusion, then they MIGHT decide to capture whatever it is that they modeled in their "modeling" tool. Whether that tool is pure UML (not sure if any such tools actually exist), or if it's quasi-UML, or if it's some sort of DSM tool, or combination thereof, isn't going to make much of a difference in the long run. What will be important is the usability of the tool and it's ability to generate high-quality working software, two issues which are completely orthogonal to the shapes of the bubbles and lines.

- Scott
 
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