Domain-specific languages in practice: A user study on the success factors

Felienne Hermans*, Martin Pinzger, Arie Van Deursen

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Chapter in Book / Report / Conference proceedingConference contributionAcademicpeer-review

Abstract

In this paper we present an empirical study on the use of a domain-specific language(DSL) in industry. This DSL encapsulates the details of services that communicate using Windows Communication Foundation (WCF). From definitions of the data contracts between clients and servers, WCF/C# code for service plumbing is generated. We conducted a survey amongst developers that use this DSL while developing applications for customers. The DSL has been used in about 30 projects all around the world. We describe the known success factors of the use of DSLs, such as improved maintainability and ease of re-use, and assert how well this DSL scores on all of them. The analysis of the results of this case study also shows which conditions should be fulfilled in order to increase the chances of success in using a DSL in a real life case.

Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationModel Driven Engineering Languages and Systems - 12th International Conference, MODELS 2009, Proceedings
Pages423-437
Number of pages15
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 1 Dec 2009
Externally publishedYes
Event12th International Conference on Model Driven Engineering Languages and Systems, MODELS 2009 - Denver, CO, United States
Duration: 4 Oct 20099 Oct 2009

Publication series

NameLecture Notes in Computer Science (including subseries Lecture Notes in Artificial Intelligence and Lecture Notes in Bioinformatics)
Volume5795 LNCS
ISSN (Print)0302-9743
ISSN (Electronic)1611-3349

Conference

Conference12th International Conference on Model Driven Engineering Languages and Systems, MODELS 2009
Country/TerritoryUnited States
CityDenver, CO
Period4/10/099/10/09

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