DSLs in Boo: Domain-specific Languages in .net

by Oren Eini

A general-purpose language like C# is designed to handle all programming tasks. By contrast, the structure and syntax of a Domain-Specific Language are designed to match a particular applications area. A DSL is designed for readability and easy programming of repeating problems. Using the innovative Boo language, it's a breeze to create a DSL for your application domain that works on .NET and does not sacrifice performance. DSLs in Boo shows you how to design, extend, and evolve DSLs for .NET by focusing on approaches and patterns. You learn to define an app in terms that match the domain, and to use Boo to build DSLs that generate efficient executables. And you won't deal with the awkward XML-laden syntax many DSLs require. The book concentrates on writing internal (textual) DSLs that allow easy extensibility of the application and framework. And if you don't know Boo, don't worry-you'll learn right here all the techniques you need. Purchase of the print book comes with an offer of a free PDF, ePub, and Kindle eBook from Manning. Also available is all code from the book.

Genres: Nonfiction, Software, Technology

328 pages, Paperback

First published July 28, 2009

Reviews

[Blair Conrad]

I hesitated over giving this book 5 stars, mostly because of the focused subject matter. Oh, and there are a few typos one or two in semi-critical locations.
I think the book deserves it, though. Rahien gives a comprehensive introduction to DSLs, why we might want to use them, and how to construct them using Boo.
His Boo introduction has fired me up about the language more than I've been in the past, and he delivers an excellent overview of the tools that it contains that can help you write a DSL.

Unlike many technical books, after covering the technical subject (constructing a DSL using Boo), this one then at least introduces, and in many cases covers in moderate depth, aspects related to using DSLs, including:
* testing DSLs
* versioning DSLs
* creating GUIs for DSLs, and
* documenting DSLs (and this section works really well as general-purpose "how to document software" instruction

and probably more. Already my brain is full.

The examples in the book are quite good, but the material is by no means spoon-fed to the reader - I found myself flipping back and forth between pages, piecing the DSL components together. Often this would've bothered me a little, but it is a complicated subject, and I didn't get the impression that I had to do this due to the author's laziness or lack of skill.

Highly entertaining and educational if you don't have to build a DSL soon, and essential if you do.

[Glenn Burnside]

Ran through this as part of evaluating approaches for a project. A good book if you want to do some scripting with a custom language. Ayende uses a good hands-on approach, with lots of examples. It's like the practical counter to Fowler's academically-oriented DSL patterns book.

[Ruxo Zheng]

The introduction to DSL is good to read. Boo language is chosen to show how to implement DSL, and while Boo seems to be designed for this, the DSL implementation is quite complex. If only it tries to introduce solution in other languages, this would be more interesting.