Language Workbenches: The Killer-App for Domain Specific Languages?

Language Workbenches: The Killer-App for Domain Specific Languages?: "Language Workbenches: The Killer-App for Domain Specific Languages?

Martin Fowler

Most new ideas in software developments are really new variations on old ideas. This article describes one of these, the growing idea of a class of tools that I call Language Workbenches - examples of which include Intentional Software, JetBrains's Meta Programming System, and Microsoft's Software Factories. These tools take an old style of development - which I call language oriented programming and use IDE tooling in a bid to make language oriented programming a viable approach. Although I'm not enough of a prognosticator to say whether they will succeed in their ambition, I do think that these tools are some of the most interesting things on the horizon of software development. Interesting enough to write this essay to try to explain, at least in outline, how they work and the main issues around their future usefulness.

Last significant update: 12 Jun 05"