Building User-Friendly DSLs (Final Release)

Craft domain-specific languages that empower experts to create software themselves.

Domain-specific languages put business experts at the heart of software development. These purpose-built tools let your clients write down their business knowledge and have it automatically translated into working software—no dev time required. They seamlessly bridge the knowledge gap between programmers and subject experts, enabling better communication and freeing you from time-consuming code adjustments.

Inside Building User-Friendly DSLs you’ll learn how to

Build a complete Domain IDE for a car rental company
Implement a projectional editor for your DSL
Implement content assist, type systems, expressions, and versioning language aspects
Evaluate business rules
Work with Abstract Syntax Trees
Reduce notated DSL content in concrete syntax into abstract syntax

Building User-Friendly DSLs takes you on a carefully-planned journey through everything you need to create your own DSLs. It focuses on building DSLs that are easy for busy business experts to learn and master. By working through a detailed example of a car rental company, you'll see how to create a custom DSL with a modern and intuitive UI that can replace tedious coding activities.

About the Technology
Here’s the central problem of software development: business users know what they need their apps to do, but they don’t know how to write the code themselves. As a developer, this means you spend a lot of time learning the same domain-specific details your user already knows. Now there’s a way to bridge this gap! You can create a Domain-Specific Language (DSL) that empowers non-technical business users to create and customize their own applications without writing any code.

About the Book
Building User-Friendly DSLs teaches you how to create a complete domain-specific language that looks and works like a web application. These easy-to-use DSLs put the power to create custom software into the hands of business domain experts. As you go, you’ll cover all the essentials, from establishing structure and syntax of your DSL to implementing a user-friendly interface.

What's Inside
Implement a projectional editor for your DSL
Work with Abstract Syntax Trees
Evaluate business rules