Introducing Domain-specific Languages

oftware Factories are one of today's new buzzwords in IT. This Microsoft initiative is likely to change the way that developers build software in the near future. The Software Factories initiative and vision doesn't stand on its own, however. It's initially supported by a set of new tools including Visual Studio 2005 Team System, the Guidance Automation Toolkit, and the DSL Tools. This article discusses domain-specific languages, one of the pillars of Software Factories. We'll try to answer such questions as: What is their role in Software Factories? How can they help you develop software? Is this just more hype, or will domain-specific languages really change the way we build software in the not too far future?

This article starts with a brief discussion of the Microsoft Software Factories initiative together with the first wave of accompanying products. We will discuss the role that these individual products play in the Software Factories initiative and show you how they relate to each other. We will use this knowledge as a context for positioning domain-specific languages and the Microsoft DSL Tools, guiding you through this new technology using a real-life example of a domain-specific language that models service contracts in a service-oriented world to aid in building distributed solutions.