Customer Reviews

Software Language Engineering: Creating Domain-Specific Languages Using Metamodels

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The title and description promised much, and my shelf of often-used computing books is dominated by Addison-Wesley, so I gave this a shot. Unfortunately, the book seems to be devoid of any real substance. I approached this book as a practitioner trying to build a DSL for production use, and wasn't able to find much beyond a regurgitation of one can get from the blogosphere. If this is your very first foray into DSLs it might be useful, otherwise you'll find Terrence Parr's "Language Implementation Patterns" to be a substantive and rewarding read, unlike this book. Also, Fowler's been threatening to publish his DSL book any day now.

The author's reinvent terms that are already known for decades in computer science. Instead of building on top of existing knowledge she tries to create her own concepts but fails. If you are looking for information on Domain-Specific Languages or in programming languages in general stay away from this book.

SOFTWARE LANGUAGE ENGINEERING: CREATING DOMAIN-SPECIFIC LANGUAGES USING METAMODELS is written by a DSL consultant and is the first in-depth guide to DSL design, covering language specification, concepts, DSL components and modeling, and much more. A fine survey of DSL frameworks, APIs, and different approaches, this will reach any college-level, advanced library catering to IT programmers.