From: ptkwt@... (Phil Tomson)
Date: 2005-02-18T18:34:51+09:00
Subject: Microsoft and DSLs

Found in the Software Developers Magazine Agile newsletter in my inbox 
this morning.  Since there has been some discussion of DSLs (domain 
specific languages) in recent days I thought it might be pertinant.

It seems that M$ isn't totally happy with UML so they're trying a 
different approach to modelling:

"Luckily, the OMG isn't the only modeling game in town. Microsoft
has struck out on its own, a strategy that has clearly served it well
in the past, and is suggesting a new approach to modeling: Domain
Specific Languages (DSLs). As the name implies, a DSL is aimed
at addressing a specific task. For example, you could define a DSL
to model a Web services-based architecture or the physical schema
of a relational database. This is a far different approach than UML's
general, wide-purpose models. For example, UML class diagrams
can be used for conceptual modeling, object-oriented analysis
modeling, object-oriented design modeling, logical data modeling and
physical data modeling. DSLs can be visual or textual, and are
described in detail in the book Software Factories (see review below),
and the concept is being implemented in the upcoming version of
Visual Studio." 

This is one case where M$ seems to be on the right track (did I say 
that?:).  I am not a fan of UML, but I am a fan of DSLs.  And Ruby is 
great for creating DSLs.

Phil