Integrating Domain-Specific Programming into Software Design

Abstract

Domain-specific languages (DSLs) have recently become a focus of attention in the software engineering community. We look at domain-specific modeling (DSM) methods that drive modeling languages for specific domains with a strong emphasis on visual tools and suggest a method for integrating them into common software design methodologies. We demonstrate a practical approach, whereby components of software are designed to be externalized as specific domain-oriented tasks. The logic in such tasks is intended to be developed by skilled personnel, different from those required to implement the main application. Furthermore, the application will become adaptable to a large class of solutions that do not require new version releases when business logic changes. Unlike application customization via configuration parameters, the logic implemented in DSL languages requires a meaningful imperative expressive power. Our method starts with the common software design methodologies based on UML and uses the Eclipse Modeling Framework (EMF) tools to externalize a selected subset of the design.