Textual Modeling Tools: Overview and Penalty Shoot-out
Bernhard Merkle discusses the various types of DSLs, and compares different language workbenches by using them with the same custom DSL in order to outline the differences between them.
Bernhard Merkle discusses the various types of DSLs, and compares different language workbenches by using them with the same custom DSL in order to outline the differences between them.

In their new book Martin Fowler and Rebecca J. Parsons address the topic of Domain-Specific Languages. “Domain-Specific Languages” does not only address the concepts behind DSLs, but also tries to explain the subject in a pragmatic manner using examples in Java, C# and other languages.The book contains different patterns that reveal best practices in designing DSLs.

Magnus Christerson demonstrates using a domain workbench to develop an electronics domain language - its key concepts, how they are defined, the semantic model – and a building access permit example showing the phases from concept to code.
Half a year ago, Meta-Programming System (MPS) version 1.0 was released by JetBrains. Following up on this, the 1.1 release occurred in December. InfoQ revisited the current state of the language workbench, which is provided as an open source product under an Apache 2.0 license (with the exception of the JetBrains IDE framework, which was extracted from IntelliJ IDEA and which is not open source).
Meta Programming System (MPS), a new Language Oriented Programming tool from JetBrains, allows the developers to extend programming languages as well as create Domain Specific Languages (DSLs) for enterprise applications. JetBrains development team recently announced the release of beta version of MPS software.