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What you will learn in Building User-Friendly DSLs

by Meinte Boersma
Foreword by Federico Tomassetti

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Chapter by chapter

Concepts explained in this book

• attributeA named characteristic of a language concept whose type determines the kind of value or relation it can hold.
• Domain IDEAn integrated development environment tailored to a specific domain that enables domain experts to author domain-specific content and supports its software-development workflow.
• domain-specific languageA domain-specific language is a programming language designed for expressing concepts and operations within a particular application domain.
• binary expressionAn operator that governs an operation combining exactly two operands.
• attribute referenceA structured object that identifies an attribute as the target of a reference.
• abstract syntax treeA structured representation of language content in which nodes represent syntactic constructs independently of surface notation.
• constraintA constraint is a rule that evaluates domain-specific language content for patterns that violate semantic or operational requirements.
• reference relationA directed relation that lets one object refer to another without making the target part of the source object's containment hierarchy.
• operator precedenceThe precedence rules that determine the sequence in which multiple operations are evaluated.
• expressionA domain-specific-language syntactic construct whose instances evaluate to values of specified types.
• domain-specific language contentStructured domain-specific information, including the rules, structures, and expressions represented in a domain-specific language.
• code generationThe automated production of source code or executable artifacts from a higher-level representation.
• RuntimeThe complete desired business software system produced for domain stakeholders, distinct from a low-level execution environment such as the runtime of a programming language.
• business ruleA declarative statement expressing a policy, constraint, or decision condition for a business domain.
• initial valueAn initial value is an optional expression-specified value assigned to an attribute when a new record is created.
• containmentA directed relation expressing that a source object contains and owns a target object, with at most one incoming containment relation per target.
• object-relation diagram notationA graphical notation for representing structured data as objects with properties and relations.
• reference objectA structured object whose reference field identifies an AST object without making that target part of the source object's containment hierarchy.
• type inferenceType inference is the algorithmic determination of expression or value types from available constraints without requiring every type to be written explicitly.
• expression ASTAn abstract syntax tree representing an expression and its nested expression structure.
• meta-DSLA meta-DSL is a domain-specific language for specifying aspects of another domain-specific language or its tooling.
• edit stateA book-specific object stored outside the abstract syntax tree that tracks editing state, including the original value and update operation for a projected DSL value.
• type checking constraintA constraint that verifies that related attributes have compatible or equal types.
• depth-first tree traversalA tree traversal technique that visits a child subtree before later nodes at the same or higher level, then backtracks to continue.
• monetary amountA DSL type whose values represent monetary amounts.
• record typeA construct representing a named record with a collection of attributes in the domain-specific language.
• subexpressionAn expression contained within another expression as one of its component expressions.
• deserializationThe reconstruction of structured in-memory data from a stored or transferred representation.
• MPSJetBrains MPS (Meta Programming System) is a language workbench for creating domain-specific languages and their associated development environments.
• parenthesisA paired expression delimiter that explicitly groups an expression and can alter its structural interpretation.
• reference implementationA small, separate, functional software system that demonstrates the intended architecture, conventions, and representative functionality of a larger system.
• typeOfA book-specific function that computes the type of an expression represented by an AST object.
• observable functionAn observable function is a MobX API function that converts a value or object into state whose changes can be tracked reactively.
• data typeA specification of the kind of value or relation that a property can store.
• MobX actionA MobX action is a function or annotation that identifies an operation allowed to modify observable state.
• DSL editorAn interactive editor that assists users in authoring and modifying syntactically and semantically valid domain-specific language content.
• HandleFaultyContent strategyA book-specific fault-handling strategy that adapts or defaults invalid DSL content so processing can continue without crashing.
• topological sortAn algorithm that orders elements of a directed acyclic dependency graph so each element precedes the elements that depend on it.
• HTTP PUT methodAn HTTP request method that replaces or creates the representation of a resource with request-provided content.
• RESTA REST API is an HTTP-based interface whose resources and operations follow the constraints and conventions of Representational State Transfer.
• textual domain-specific languageA domain-specific language whose programs are represented as text and processed through textual syntax and parsing.
• identifierAn identifier is a value that uniquely distinguishes an AST object so it can be indexed and referenced during persistence operations.
• DSL structureThe organization and rules of a domain-specific language that define its concepts, properties, types, instances, relations, and permitted compositions.
• type computationThe process of determining the type produced by an expression from its syntax, operands, and context.
• operandA subexpression that supplies an input to an operation, such as the left or right input of a binary operation.
• concept labelThe label in an object-relation diagram object that identifies the concept of which the object is an instance.
• dsl-based approachA software development technique in which domain experts author precise domain knowledge as DSL content that contributes to software specification and implementation.
• ImposeConstraints strategyA book-specific validation strategy that detects and reports missing or invalid domain-specific language content rather than silently accepting it.
• abstract syntaxThe structural form of language content that represents its essential constructs without surface-level notation details.
• concrete syntaxThe notation-level form of language content, including its textual and visual presentation details.
• couplingA dependency relationship in which changes to one software component can require corresponding changes to another component.
• best-effort typeA provisional type produced when the obviously correct type of an expression cannot be determined but a sensible approximation is available.
• untypeA special type-system result indicating that no sensible type can be computed for an expression.
• AST migrationAn AST migration is a transformation that adapts an abstract syntax tree from one version of a domain-specific language implementation to another.
• side-transformA transformation of an abstract syntax tree that replaces a specified AST object with a binary operation containing that object as an operand.
• subject matter expertA domain expert is a person with specialized knowledge of the business domain that a software system or language represents.
• type objectA machine-processable structured representation of a specific type, including an identifying concept label and settings.
• business knowledgeBusiness knowledge is domain-specific information about rules, processes, and requirements relevant to an organization or application.
• notationA system of symbols and textual or visual conventions for representing information in a language.
• ExpressA Node.js web application framework for building HTTP servers and routing web requests.
• right-transformA side-transform that replaces an AST object with a binary operation in which the original object is the left operand and the right operand is initially unset.
• attribute dependencyAn attribute dependency is a relationship in which initializing one attribute requires the initialization of another attribute first.
• dependency orderingDependency order is an ordering of attributes in which no attribute precedes an attribute on which it depends.
• ambiguous grammarA grammar for which some text has more than one valid parse according to the grammar.
• error recoveryA parsing technique that continues analysis after syntactic errors by resynchronizing at a later point in the input.
• language serviceA software component that derives a particular kind of semantic or editing information from language content, typically represented by an abstract syntax tree.
• parse treeA tree-shaped representation of the syntactic structure recognized while parsing text.
• parser generatorA tool or framework that generates a parser from a grammar specification.
• build systemSoftware that automates the generation and construction of executable artifacts from source specifications or code.
• arithmetic operatorAn operator that performs a numerical arithmetic calculation such as multiplication, division, addition, or subtraction.
• ast-building processA procedure for constructing an expression abstract syntax tree by representing operands, parentheses, and operations in evaluation order.
• value kindA property indicating whether an attribute value is initially assigned or computed from an expression.
• referencedAttributesInValueOfA book-specific query function that returns the distinct attributes referenced anywhere in an attribute's value expression.
• metamodelA metamodel is a model that precisely specifies the permitted structure, contents, properties, and types of models in a language.
• version IDAn identifier associated with a DSL representation that specifies the structure version to which it conforms.
• software language engineeringSoftware language engineering is the engineering discipline concerned with designing, implementing, evolving, and tooling programming languages.
• real-time collaborative editingConcurrent editing in which multiple collaborators modify shared content and observe one another’s changes while working.
• operator associativityA binary operator whose equal-precedence sequences are grouped from left to right.
• assignment compatibilityA directional type relation in which every value of one type can be assigned as a value of another type.
• type compatibilityA relation between types specifying whether values of one type can be used where values of another type are expected.
• increment effectA DSL concept representing an operation that increases the value of an attribute by a numeric operand of the same type.
• AST objectAn individual structured object representing a node or element within an abstract syntax tree.
• operatorA language element that governs the operation performed by an expression concept on its contained subexpressions.
• language workbenchA software tool or environment for designing, implementing, and deploying programming languages and their development tools.
• DSL-aspecific codeCode needed by a software component that is neither specific to domain-specific languages nor generic DSL implementation framework code.
• DSL-generic codeCode that provides reusable implementation framework for domain-specific languages without depending on the specifics of one language.
• DSL-specific codeCode that is strongly dependent on one or more defining aspects of a particular domain-specific language.
• almost-astAn almost-AST is a tree representation nearly identical to an abstract syntax tree except that reference objects contain target identifiers instead of object references.
• computed valueA value specification that determines an attribute's value through an expression rather than by storing an initial value.
• serializationSerialization is the conversion of structured in-memory data into a storable or transferable representation.
• reference resolutionReference resolution is the process of replacing serialized reference representations with references to the corresponding in-memory AST objects.
• JSXA JavaScript syntax extension that permits XML-like markup to be embedded in JavaScript expressions.
• deltaA recorded atomic change to DSL content or to the abstract syntax tree representing it.
• branchA named sequence of version-control commits representing an independent line of work.
• client-server architectureA software architecture in which clients request services or data from a server that provides them.
• commitA version-control record representing the state of tracked content at a particular point in time.
• conflict-free replicated data typeA replicated data structure designed so that concurrent updates can be combined without conflicts.
• merge conflictA condition in which concurrent changes cannot be automatically combined by a version-control system.
• tagA named label associated with a particular version-control commit.
• versioningThe practice of recording and managing successive versions of files or other artifacts.
• deep observabilityAn observability property in which changes within an observable object’s nested contents are also observable.
• PreventPersistence strategyA validation strategy that prevents incomplete or invalid DSL content from being saved or processed by downstream generators and build steps.
• recursionA computation technique in which a procedure solves a problem by invoking itself on smaller or nested instances of that problem.
• simple settingA setting that assigns a simple value rather than an object or collection of objects to a property.
• simple valueA value that is not an object or a collection of objects, including text, numbers, Booleans, and null.
• parentheses expressionA DSL object or expression that explicitly groups a subexpression so it is processed as a unit and has the value and type of that subexpression.
• type equalityA type equality is a constraint asserting that two type expressions must denote the same type.
• event propagationEvent propagation is the process by which a DOM event is delivered from its originating element through surrounding elements in the DOM tree.
• RascalA programming language designed for metaprogramming tasks such as analyzing, transforming, and generating code.
• SiriusAn Eclipse-based language workbench for creating graphical domain-specific languages for desktop and web environments.
• XtextAn Eclipse-based language workbench for creating textual domain-specific languages and their development tooling.
• domainA bounded area of knowledge, activity, or business concern that a software system addresses.
• projectional editingAn editor that presents a structured representation of language content as a user interface for manipulating that content.
• virtual parenthesesProjection-only parentheses displayed to clarify an expression's AST grouping without being represented in the underlying expression AST.
• placeholderA temporary value that represents the intention to create a new abstract-syntax-tree object before its concept has been chosen.
• settingA value assigned on a language instance for a property from the concept it instantiates.
• constraint checkerA program component that evaluates domain-specific language content or an abstract syntax tree against constraints and returns the violations found.
• problemA diagnostic indicating that domain-specific language content violates a constraint.
• conceptA blueprint for a fundamental DSL construct that can be instantiated and given properties.
• affected attributeAn affected attribute is the attribute whose value is determined or changed by a business rule effect.
• unique constraintA constraint that detects sufficiently similar neighboring or related things whose names are too similar or equal.
• enumAn enumeration is a language construct that defines a fixed collection of permitted named values.
• consequenceThe part of a business rule that specifies how a value in the rule’s record type is set or changed.
• ancestor listAn array containing the AST objects that contain a currently projected AST object, ordered from the nearest parent to the root.
• build settingsConfiguration data that specifies how source inputs and generated artifacts are transformed into a runnable system.
• reference idA reference ID is an identifier stored in a serialized reference object to identify the referenced AST object.
• serialized reference objectA serialized reference object is a JSON object that represents an AST reference relation by storing the target object's identifier in a refId field.
• business logicThe rules and decision-making behavior that encode an organization’s business knowledge in software.
• software languageAn artificial language defined precisely through software, with a formal meaning, notation, and tools for writing and processing it.
• left-transformA side-transform that replaces an AST object with a binary operation extending the expression toward the left.
• template functionA function that generates source code from fixed text and information extracted from an abstract syntax tree.
• backendThe server-side part of a software system that provides services, storage, and processing for its frontend.
• execution modelA specification of how business rules expressed as DSL content interact and are executed.
• higher-order componentA React pattern in which a function accepts a component or component configuration and returns an enhanced or specialized component.
• specificationA formal description of the domain requirements and behavior that the DSL represents and from which working code is derived.
• MobXMobX is a JavaScript state-management library that tracks observable data and updates dependent computations or user-interface components when that data changes.
• template literalA JavaScript literal syntax delimited by backticks that can represent multiline strings and interpolate expressions.
• computed propertyA class property whose value is derived when accessed rather than stored as an independently assigned value.
• leaf objectAn AST object that has no child objects connected by outgoing containment relations.
• deprecated featureThe process of marking a language feature as discouraged or obsolete while retaining it temporarily for dependent content.
• arityThe number of subexpressions or operands that an expression concept instance can contain.
• conditionThe part of a business rule that specifies the circumstances under which the rule applies.
• nested stringA code-generation composition technique in which generated strings are embedded within other template strings.
• invalid abstract syntax treeAn abstract syntax tree that violates one or more constraints of its domain-specific language.
• encoded abstract syntax treeAn in-memory object encoding an abstract syntax tree so that software can inspect, alter, and traverse its concepts and settings.
• cycle detectionCycle detection is a graph-analysis technique that determines whether a path or dependency chain returns to a previously visited node.
• issue messageA textual description of a constraint violation and, ideally, the way to correct it.
• number literalA DSL AST object representing a numeric literal value whose rendering can depend on the enclosing attribute's type.
• booleanA value or type with one of two truth values, true or false.
• reference wrapperA JavaScript object containing a reference marker and target reference so that a reference can be distinguished from an encoded AST object.
• dereferencingObtaining the target object of a relation by following a direct object reference.

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