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CS 493/693/793
Special Topics in Domain Specific Languages
Spring 2010
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Instructor |
Office hours |
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Office: CH 117 Phone:
(205) 934-8640 Email:
marjan.mernik@uni-mb.si |
By
appointment |
COURSE DESCRIPTION
Programming
languages are a programmer's most basic tools. A language is suitable for a
programming problem if it makes the programmer productive, and if it allows the
programmer to write highly scalable, generic, readable and maintainable code.
There are various ways to classify or to group programming languages. One can,
for example, focus on the programming paradigm in such a classification
(imperative vs. functional vs. logic vs. object-oriented). One can also
consider 2GLs, 3GLs, 4GLs, or very high-level languages. We want to emphasize
the division of programming languages into general-purpose and domain-specific
languages. With general-purpose languages, one can address large classes of
problems e.g., scientific computing, business processing, symbolic processing
while a domain-specific language (DSL) facilitates the solution of problems in
a particular domain. To this end, a DSL provides built-in abstractions and notations
specific to the domain of concern. DSLs are usually small, more declarative
than imperative, and more attractive than GPLs for a variety of applications
because of easier programming, systematic reuse and easier verification. DSLs
have been used in various domains and these applications have clearly
illustrated the advantages of DSLs over GPLs in areas such as productivity,
reliability, maintainability and flexibility. However, the cost for DSL design,
development and maintenance has to be taken into account. Without an
appropriate methodology and tools this costs can be higher than savings
obtained by the later use of DSL. This course introduces students to
appropriate methodologies and tools needed to support the development of DSLs.
The
general topics of the course will be:
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An
introduction to the history of DSLs (including examples of some widely used
DSLs)
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Phases
in the development of DSLs (analysis, design, implementation)
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Domain
Analysis Methodologies (e.g. FODA - Feature-Oriented Domain Analysis)
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Language
design issues
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DSLs
implementation approaches (compiler/interpreter, preprocessing, embedded,
extensible compiler/interpreter)
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Language
development toolkits (ASF+SDF, LISA, metafront, etc.)
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Incremental
language development
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DSL
design patterns
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Domain-Specific
Visual Languages
PREREQUISITES OR
CO-REQUISITE
Programming
languages
TEXTBOOK
There
is no formal textbook for this course. The course web site will contain a list
of required readings, as well as other related papers/books.
LECTURES
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Lecture 01 (ppt) - Introduction, GPL definitions
and classifications, DSL definitions
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Lecture 02 (ppt) - Differences between modeling and
programming languages
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Lecture 03-05 (ppt) - GPL concepts
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Lecture 06 (ppt) - DSL concepts
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Lecture 07 (ppt) - When to develop DSL
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Lecture 08 (ppt) - Domain Analysis, FODA
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Lecture 09 (ppt) - DSL Design
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Lecture 10-13 (ppt) - Formal Syntax and
Semantics: BNF, Attribute Grammars
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Lecture 14 - Scenario-based Analysis
of UML Class Models by dr. Robert France (Colorado State University)
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Lecture 15-17 (ppt) - Formal Semantics:
Denotational Semantics, Operational Semantics
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Lecture 18-19 (ppt) - DSL implementation -
interpreter/compiler approach
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Lecture 20 (ppt) - DSL implementation -
macro-processing approach
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Lecture 21 (ppt) - DSL implementation -
source-to-source, pipeline, lexical processing, embedding
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Lecture 22 (ppt) - DSL implementation - extensible
compiler/interpreter approach, XML-based approach, hybrid approaches
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Lecture 23 (ppt) - Resume on implementation
approaches
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Lecture 24 (ppt) - DSL patterns
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Lecture 25-26 (ppt) - Language development
toolkits - LISA (LISA examples)
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Lecture 27 (ppt) - DSLs examples
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Lecture 28 - Final Exam Sample
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Lecture 29-30 - DSL student projects presentations
REQUIRED
A.
van Deursen, P. Klint, J. Visser. Domain-Specific
Languages: An Annotated Bibliography. ACM Sigplan Notices, Vol. 35, No. 6,
pages 26 - 36, 2000.
L.
Cardelli, R. Davies. Service
Combinators for Web Computing. Proceedings of the 1st Conference
on Domain-Specific Languages, 1997.
A. van Deursen, P. Klint. Domain-Specific
Language Design Requires Feature Description. CIT Journal of Computing and
Information Technology, Special Issue on Domain-Specific Languages, Part II,
Eds. R. Laemmel, M. Mernik, Vol. 10, No. 1, pages 1-17, 2002.
D.
Wile. Lessons Learned
from Real DSL Experiments. Science of
Computer Programming, Vol
51, Issue 3, pages 265-290, 2004.
J.
Paakki. Attribute
grammar paradigms - a high-level methodology in language implementation.
ACM Computing Surveys, Vol. 27, No. 2, pages 196-255, 1995. (1st
chapter)
C. Brabrand, M. Schwartzbach. Growing
Languages with Metamorphic Syntax Macros. ACM SIGPLAN Workshop on Partial Evaluation and
Semantics-Based Program Manipulation, 2002.
J. Bentley. Little Languages. Communications of the ACM, Vol.
29, No. 8, pages 711-721, 1986.
C. Consel, R.
Marlet. Architecturing software using a
methodology for language development . Proceedings of the 10th International Symposium on Programming Language
Implementation and Logic Programming, pages 170-194, 1998.
S. Chiba. A Metaobject
Protocol for C++. Conference
on Object Oriented Programming Systems Languages and Applications, pages
285-299, 1995.
T. Kosar, P. Martinez Lopez, P. Barrientos, M. Mernik. A preliminary study on
various implementation approaches of domain-specific language. Information
and Software Technology, Vol. 50, No. 5, pages. 390-405, 2008.
D. Spinellis. Notable design patterns
for domain-specific languages. The
Journal of Systems and Software, Vol. 56, Issue 1, pages 91-99, 2001.
M. Mernik, J. Heering, T. Sloane. When and how to
develop domain-specific languages. ACM Computing Surveys, Vol. 37, Issue 4,
pages 316-344, 2005.
S. Mauw, W.
Wiersma, T. Willemse. Language-Driven System Design. HICSS-35,
2002 (revised and extended version).
OPTIONAL READINGS
Y.
Sun, Z. Demirezen, M. Mernik, J. Gray, B. Bryant. Is
my DSL a modeling or programming language? 2nd International Workshop on Domain-Specific Program Development
(DSPD), Nashville, Tennessee, October 22, 2008.
M.
Alanen, I. Porres. A Relation Between Context-Free Grammars
and Meta-Object Facility Metamodels. TUCS Technical Report No. 606, 2003.
H. Nielson, F. Nielson: Semantics with
Applications: A Formal Introduction. Wiley, 1992.
D. Harel, B. Rumpe. Meaningful
Modeling: What is the Semantics of Semantics? IEEE Computer,
Vol. 37, No. 10, pages 64 - 72, October 2004.
T.
Veldhuizen. Using C++ template
metaprograms. C++ Report, Vol. 7, No. 4, pages 36-43, May 1995.
P. Hudak. Modular Domain
Specific Languages and Tools. Proceedings
Fifth International Conference on Software Reuse, pages 134 - 142, 1998.
G. Kiczales,
A. Paepcke. Open Implementations and Metaobject Protocols.
Tutorial.
C. Elliott, S. Finne, O. de Moor. Compiling Embedded Languages.
Semantics, Applications and Implementation of Program Generation workshop, SAIG
2000.
J. van
Schagen. Measuring the quality of
domain-specific language implementation approaches: Java versus ANTLR.
Master Thesis, University of Amsterdam, 2009.
M. Mernik, V.
Zumer. Incremental Programming
Language Development, Computer Languages, Systems and Structures, Vol. 31,
Issue 1, pages 1-16, 2005.
M. Mernik, M.
Lenic, E. Avdicausevic, V. Zumer. Multiple
attribute grammar inheritance. Informatica, 2000, Vol. 24, No. 3, pages.
319-328.
D. Rebernak,
M. Mernik, H. Wu, and J. Gray. Domain-specific
aspect languages for modularising crosscutting concerns in grammars. IET
Software, Vol. 3, Issue 3, pages 184-200.
R. Pike, S. Dorward, R. Griesemer, S.
Quinlan. Interpreting the Data: Parallel Analysis
with Sawzall. Scientific Programming, Vol. 13, Issue 4, pages 277-298,
2005.
R. A. van
Engelen. ATMOL: A Domain-Specific Language for Atmospheric
Modeling. CIT Journal of Computing and Information Technology, Special
Issue on Domain-Specific Languages, Part I, Eds. R. Laemmel, M. Mernik, Vol. 9,
No. 4, pages 289-303, 2001.
USEFUL LINKS
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Domain-specific_programming_language