Part 1. Introducing domain-specific languages

What are domain-specific languages (DSLs)? What value do they have for an application developer? What value do they add for the business user who’ll use the application? Does DSL-driven development improve communication between the development team and the team of domain experts? What are the pros and cons of DSL-driven development? These are some of the questions that you’ll find answers to in part 1 of this book.

Chapters 1, 2, and 3 form part 1 of DSLs In Action. I’ll introduce many of the commonly used DSLs and talk about general design principles so you can get an idea of what to look for when you design a DSL of your own.

Chapter 1, is as usual, an introduction to DSLs.

In chapter 2, you’ll design what might be your first DSL. As you work along, you’ll get a taste of how expressive DSLs evolve iteratively from the user requirements. First, you’ll implement the DSL in Java; then you’ll see how it can be more expressive using Groovy, another language on the JVM.

In chapter 3, you will learn integrating internal and external DSLs in a core application and how to manage errors and exceptions.

Part 1 will be equally appealing to programmers and nonprogramming domain users. I’ve kept implementation details out of part 1 so you can get a broad overview of the DSL landscape.