Talk:Domain-specific language

message: I my mind, the first example of a domain-specific language is "blocks world" - an AI experiment that created a small language specific to a very particular domain. I am reasonably certain I heard this term used in the late 1970's or early 1980's ... but finding reference material on the web from pre-web time is more difficult. (Or was the term used only verbally? Impossible to prove.) I read the description of "blocks world" as an undergraduate in the late-1970's.
Lisp was a primary platform for domain-specific languages in that time. (AI experiments, Emacs Lisp, AutoLisp in AutoCAD - are early examples.) We used what amounted to a domain-specific language to at UCI in a research project add a pretty-printer to an Ada development environment the group was building, and got a great deal done with a small amount of effort. That was a strong early lesson (in the late 1970's).
I was acquainted with the notion of domain-specific languages from school (late 1970's), but it is possible I heard the term slightly later. Two questions:
# When was "domain specific" first used to describe a language?
# What are the early examples of clearly domain-specific languages? (I think we are looking at the 1970's.)  — Preceding unsigned comment added by Pbannister (talk • contribs) 02:36, 1 November 2016 (UTC)
thread_title:  Early examples? 

message: Please note that Martin Fowler has his own definition of a Domain Specific Language. This is especially true when it comes the concept of EDSLs. There should be a clear distinction between MF's definition and the "classical" definition.
:Note above comment not mine, and was somehow entered in here without direct ~ or bot signatures.
:In comment to what it said, I believe this entire page to be a wikipedia made concept.  Domain specific languages simply are a *very* loosely referred to term (take a close look at the lack of citations!) and frankly this is another attempt by contributors to invent something out of whole-cloth.  Such things have a circularly fulfilling role: People make the absurd decision to quote wikipedia in various places with such terms, and it then gains solidity because those online usages END UP IN WIKIPEDIA AS CITATIONS.Tgm1024 (talk) 05:35, 7 April 2019 (UTC)
thread_title: Martin Fowler's Definitions

message: The statement regarding the legend of John Henry is unclear. Could someone clarify this? Bsmntbombdood 21:59, 6 May 2006 (UTC)
thread_title: J Henry

message: While macros can be used to implement DSLs; DSLs and macros are not the same. --EngineerScotty 20:02, 7 December 2005 (UTC)
thread_title:  DSL != Macros 

message: Not all languages are programming languages. There are also modeling languages.
Not all DSLs are DSPL (Domain Specific Programming Languages).
The systematic redirection from DSL to DSPL is confusing to many.
PL/1 is a GPPL (General Purpose Programming Language).
UML is an example of a GPML (General Purpose Modeling Language).
There are plenty of DSML (Domain Specific Modeling languages).
that are currently been defined in model engineering. Not all of them 
are executable. (MDE)
: Now how should we sort this out? So, there are programming languages and there are modelling languages. There are general-purpose languages and there are domain-specific languages. Do we need separate articles for computer programming, programming language, domain-specific programming language, modelling language, domain-specific modelling language, Domain-Specific Modeling, software modelling, or could we start with a couple of well-rounded articles?
: As a first notice, I would like to point out that a lot of programming stuff redirect here because of the domain-specific programming language vs. general-purpose programming language dichotomy. The title of this article is also domain-specific programming language. Creating little programming languages is an important concept in computer programming, so I would like this article to be centered on that.
: In a sense, only a Turing-complete programming language can be totally general purpose, and in that light also modelling languages are special-purpose languages limited to modelling. For now, it could make sense to have two articles on modelling: software modelling on one hand, and Domain-Specific Modeling on the other. The former could discuss UML and DSLs etc. as they are applied in software engineering, and the latter could center on the concept of a domain and what's related to its modelling.
: What do you people think? --TuukkaH 09:54, 24 April 2006 (UTC)
replies: text:  I've only seen the term DSL for graphical languages; such languages are usually called specification languages or modelling languages, and are never called programming languages.  But they must be treated in this article.  Furthermore, the GraphViz example given is of a textual language that isn't a programming language either.  In short, the rename to "Domain Specific Language" is necessary and I'll simply go ahead with it. Rp (talk) 18:35, 24 April 2008 (UTC)
thread_title: Programming Languages and Modeling Languages

message: I think it might be a good idea to reference how Software Factories can be implemented when using a DSL.  Ideass? —The preceding unsigned comment was added by SCMcDonnell (talk • contribs) 21:49, 5 December 2006 (UTC)
thread_title:  Reference to Software Factories 

message: To summarize, an analogy might be useful: a Very Little Language is like a knife, which can be used in thousands of different ways
What is a Very Little Language? Should this be 'scripting language' or something similar?  —Preceding unsigned comment added by 86.41.36.254 (talk) 22:09, 1 April 2008 (UTC)
replies: text: Additionally, Little language redirects to this article. I came across this term via the Pic language article. After a quick research, this term (for example) seems to be used by Jon Bentley in both his book More Programming Pearls: Confessions of a Coder and his publication Little Languages in Communications of the ACM, August 1986, Volume 29, Number 8, pp. 711. In his definition, a little language denotes a formal language that is deliberately tailored towards a specific application area - i.e. little language is synonymous to domain-specific language. --Abdull (talk) 21:53, 9 March 2010 (UTC)
thread_title:  Very Little Language? 

message: Do shell scripting languages like Bash fall under the "domain specific" category. If they do, they'd probably make an excellent example for the introduction.  —Preceding unsigned comment added by 128.36.68.99 (talk) 02:25, 14 February 2009 (UTC)
replies: text: 132.229.16.173 178.246.26.132 (talk) 21:08, 20 April 2023 (UTC)
thread_title:  Shell scripting 

message: UnrealScript maybe used in the "domain" of game scripting, but it doesn't seem like a DSL to me. It looks like a general purpose programming langauge to me. This is not a DSL.
Fresheneesz (talk) 22:37, 11 May 2012 (UTC)
replies: text: I think people might say something is a DSL if it has constructs "specifically geared toward" some domain. However, general purpose languages also have things that are specifically geared toward specific domains. Those things are called modules. Having specific functions for specific things does not make something a DSL in my book. 209.66.74.34 (talk) 23:27, 29 May 2012 (UTC)
thread_title:  Is UnrealScript really a DSL? 

message: Quake 1 is NOT scripted in standard C. Quake C is an interpreted DSL with very simple syntax, based on C. Rather limited and slow, but also easy to learn. Other Id software games, such as quake 3 and Doom 3 also used DSL for scripting. Quake 1 mods are widespread and many are well-known. Total conversion mods existed before engine source code went GPL. Original Team Fortress is a quake mod. Counter strike is a mod of Quake1-based Half Life. Build engine-based FPS games also used DSL for scripting before Unreal as far as I know.
Overall, DSLs are widely used in game development for a long time.
Most adventure games are programmed with DSLs. Another World, classic action game, is written in DSL. List can be huge.
80.249.84.110 (talk) 21:47, 19 November 2012 (UTC)
thread_title:  On Unrealscript, quake etc. 

message: I would like to change the lead sentence from:
:... domain-specific language (DSL) is a programming language or specification language dedicated to a particular problem domain...
to 
:... Domain-specific language (DSL) is a specific category of programming languages or specification languages dedicated to a particular problem domain...
In stead of specific category of..., it can also be specific group of... or specific type of... or general type of....
I just made a similar change in the Domain-specific modeling, see here. However, here I want to discuss this change first. The reasons for this change are:
* Wikipedia offers series of articles about Domain-specific languages all starting with: XXX is a ... language.
* This article is not about a specific type of language.
* This could/should be stipulated in the lead sentence... one way or an other, to make clear this is not about just an other specific language.
I would like to have some feed back on this. -- Mdd (talk) 11:50, 30 November 2012 (UTC)
thread_title:  Lead sentence specification 

message: A search for DSL takes you directly to the "Digital Subscriber Line" article.  This surprised me; would it make sense to have a disambiguation page for DSL? AmigoNico (talk) 21:07, 28 December 2012 (UTC)
thread_title:  DSL Disambiguation 

message: Perhaps we need more discussion of languages like Marc Davis' Media Streams see   — Preceding unsigned comment added by 64.5.67.75 (talk) 16:29, 10 January 2013 (UTC)
thread_title:  Visual Languages 

message: is FilterMeister really relevant anymore? ---62.23.212.218 (talk) 08:52, 21 August 2013 (UTC)
thread_title:  FilterMeister 

message: Configuration files should perhaps be added as a new subsection under the "Examples" section. Most configuration files are written using a very simple but specific language, i.e. domain specific with the application or system which is being configured being the domain. —Kri (talk) 02:40, 29 August 2015 (UTC)
thread_title:  Configuration files? 

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