scholarly journals Evaluating the Usability of Domain-Specific Languages

2012 ◽  
pp. 386-407 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ankica Barišic ◽  
Vasco Amaral ◽  
Miguel Goulão ◽  
Bruno Barroca
Keyword(s):  
User Interfaces ◽  
Experimental Evaluation ◽  
Development Process ◽  
Systematic Approach ◽  
Evaluation Model ◽  
Domain Specific Languages ◽  
Domain Experts ◽  
Domain Specific ◽  
Literature Reviews ◽  
Key Factor

Domain-Specific Languages (DSLs) can be regarded as User Interfaces (UIs) because they bridge the gap between the domain experts and the computation platforms. Usability of DSLs by domain experts is a key factor for their successful adoption. The few reports supporting improvement claims are persuasive, but mostly anecdotal. Systematic literature reviews show that evidences on the effects of the introduction of DSLs are actually very scarce. In particular, the evaluation of usability is often skipped, relaxed, or at least omitted from papers reporting the development of DSLs. The few exceptions mostly take place at the end of the development process, when fixing problems is already too expensive. A systematic approach, based on techniques for the experimental evaluation of UIs, should be used to assess suitability of new DSLs. This chapter presents a general experimental evaluation model, tailored for DSLs’ experimental evaluation, and instantiates it in several DSL’s evaluation examples.

scholarly journals Evaluating the Usability of Domain-Specific Languages

2014 ◽  
pp. 2120-2141 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ankica Barišic ◽  
Vasco Amaral ◽  
Miguel Goulão ◽  
Bruno Barroca
Keyword(s):  
User Interfaces ◽  
Experimental Evaluation ◽  
Development Process ◽  
Systematic Approach ◽  
Evaluation Model ◽  
Domain Specific Languages ◽  
Domain Experts ◽  
Domain Specific ◽  
Literature Reviews ◽  
Key Factor

Domain-Specific Languages (DSLs) can be regarded as User Interfaces (UIs) because they bridge the gap between the domain experts and the computation platforms. Usability of DSLs by domain experts is a key factor for their successful adoption. The few reports supporting improvement claims are persuasive, but mostly anecdotal. Systematic literature reviews show that evidences on the effects of the introduction of DSLs are actually very scarce. In particular, the evaluation of usability is often skipped, relaxed, or at least omitted from papers reporting the development of DSLs. The few exceptions mostly take place at the end of the development process, when fixing problems is already too expensive. A systematic approach, based on techniques for the experimental evaluation of UIs, should be used to assess suitability of new DSLs. This chapter presents a general experimental evaluation model, tailored for DSLs’ experimental evaluation, and instantiates it in several DSL’s evaluation examples.

scholarly journals DSL-driven generation of Graphical User Interfaces

2014 ◽  
Vol 4 (4) ◽  
Author(s):  
Michaela Bačíková ◽  
Jaroslav Porubän
Keyword(s):  
User Interfaces ◽  
Development Process ◽  
Web Applications ◽  
Graphical User Interfaces ◽  
Domain Specific Languages ◽  
Domain Specific ◽  
Design And Implementation ◽  
Speed Up ◽  
Development Phases ◽  
New Applications

AbstractDomain-specific languages (DSLs) are becoming more and more popular. However, the number of DSLs is still small when comparing to the number of existing applications. The results of our previous research showed that it is possible to speed up the DSL development process by aiding the first development phases (design and implementation). More specifically it is possible to generate DSLs from existing GUIs (Graphical User Interfaces) of component-based applications. Now we want to use the generated DSLs and their models to generate new user interfaces or even whole new applications. To verify this claim, in this paper we use existing technologies which simplify the creation of web applications: iTasks. We also describe stereotypes of creating GUIs which we used to extract data from existing applications and to generate new applications. In the last part of this paper we limit the types of applications, which can be used for extraction based on our experiments with the prototype.

scholarly journals Simplified Graphical Domain-Specific Languages as Communication Tools in the Process of Developing Mobile Systems for Reporting Life-Threatening Situations – the Perspective of Technical Persons

2017 ◽  
Vol 51 (1) ◽  
pp. 39-51
Author(s):  
Kamil Żyła
Keyword(s):  
Traffic Accidents ◽  
Mobile Systems ◽  
Mobile Technologies ◽  
Practical Training ◽  
Domain Specific Languages ◽  
Communication Platform ◽  
Domain Experts ◽  
Domain Specific ◽  
It Systems ◽  
Life Threatening

Abstract Reporting systems based on mobile technologies and feedback from regular citizens are becoming increasingly popular, especially as far as protection of environmental and cultural heritage is concerned. Reporting life-threatening situations, such as sudden natural disasters or traffic accidents, belongs to the same class of problems and could be aided by IT systems of a similar architecture. Designing and developing systems for reporting life-threatening situations is not a trivial task, requiring close cooperation between software developers and experts in different domains, who could possibly find industrially recognized languages and notations difficult. Thus, the question is whether using simplified graphical domain-specific languages (SGDSLs) could help in creating a common communication platform. It has been revealed that domain experts have a preference for such languages as they offer good learnability, readability and ability to focus on the idea of application. The perspective of developers (technical persons) is introduced on the basis of feedback obtained from 84 students of Computer Science at the Lublin University of Technology, who attended comprehensive workshops followed by an anonymous survey. All participants received theoretical and practical training in modeling mobile software using the same set of languages as domain experts. An analysis of the results revealed that opinions expressed by technical and nontechnical persons concerning SGDSLs oriented on defining a flow of actions is consistent. Most respondents claimed that such languages might be valuable as tools for creating a common communication platform.

scholarly journals Ενσωμάτωση γλωσσών ειδικού πεδίου με γενικές γλώσσες προγραμματισμού γενικού σκοπού

2015 ◽  
Author(s):  
Βασίλειος Καρακόιδας
Keyword(s):  
Development Process ◽  
General Purpose ◽  
Regular Expressions ◽  
Domain Specific Languages ◽  
Domain Specific ◽  
Database Connectivity

Οι Γλώσσες Ειδικού Πεδίου (Domain-specific Languages), γνωστές και ως μικρό-γλώσσες (mi- cro languages), αποτελούν γλώσσες προγραμματισμού των οποίων ο σχεδιασμός εστιάζει στην αντιμετώπιση προβλημάτων ενός συγκεκριμένου πεδίου ενδιαφέροντος. Πολύ συχνά, οι γλώσσες ειδικού πεδίου χρησιμοποιούνται στη βελτιστοποίηση της διαδικασίας ανάπτυξης λογισμικού (Soft- ware Development Process). Γνωστές γλώσσες ειδικού πεδίου αποτελούν οι κανονικές εκφράσεις (regular expressions), η γλώσσα markdown και η SQL. Στην αντίπερα όχθη, οι Γενικές Γλώσσες Προγραμματισμού (General-purpose Languages) έχουν ευρύτερες δυνατότητες. Αυτές παρέχουν όλες τις απαραίτητες δομές επεξεργασίας οι οποίες τις καθιστούν αποδοτικές σε ένα μεγαλύτερο εύρος προβλημάτων. Τυπικά παραδείγματα γενικών γλωσσών προγραμματισμού αποτελούν οι γλώσσες Java, C++ και Scala. Οι σύγχρονες προσεγγίσεις στην ανάπτυξη λογισμικού επιβάλουν οι γλώσσες ειδικού πεδίου να χρησιμοποιούνται παράλληλα με τις γενικές γλώσσες προγραμματισμού. Για παράδειγμα, η ενσωμάτωση της SQL σε διάφορες γενικές γλώσσες προγραμματισμού αποτέλεσε το πεδίο ενδια- φέροντος για πολλούς ερευνητές. Στην περίπτωση της Java, για την ενσωμάτωση της γλώσσας προγραμματισμού χρησιμοποιείται η βιβλιοθήκη εφαρμογής της Συνδετικότητας Βάσης Δεδομένων (JDBC, Java Database Connectivity). Ο προγραμματιστής εκτελεί το ερώτημα SQL στη βάση ως συμβολοσειρά (string). Μέσω αυτής της διαδικασίας ο μεταγλωττιστής της Java (Java compiler) αγνοεί εντελώς την SQL που περιέχεται στον κώδικα της Java, με αποτέλεσμα πολλά σφάλματα τύπων (type errors) ή συντακτικά σφάλματα (syntax errors) να εντοπίζονται τελικά κατά την εκτέλεση του προγράμματος. Ορισμένα από τα εν λόγω σφάλματα παραμένουν μη ανιχνεύσιμα ακόμα και μετά από παρατεταμένες δοκιμές κατά το στάδιο ανάπτυξης του λογισμικού. Υπάρχουν βέβαια και πιο εξελιγμένες μέθοδοι, η πλειοψηφία των οποίων χρησιμοποιούν κοινές τεχνικές προερχόμενες από μεταγλωττιστές και μεταπρογραμματισμό. Όλες όμως αυτές οι προσεγ- γίσεις πάσχουν κατά κανόνα ατό μια ή παραπάνω από τις κάτωθι αδυναμίες: - Αντιμετωπίζουν το πρόβλημα για ένα μόνο ζεύγος γλωσσών, μια γλώσσα ειδικού πεδίου και μια γλώσσα γενικού προγραμματισμού. Η ενσωμάτωση και άλλων γλωσσών ειδικού πεδίου είτε δεν υποστηρίζεται ή υποστηρίζεται μέσω πολύπλοκων συντακτικών μηχανισμών. - Συστήνουν σύνθετες λύσεις οι οποίες επιβαρύνουν τις κύριες γλώσσες προγραμματισμού, υποχρεώνοντας τους προγραμματιστές να χρησιμοποιούν πολύπλοκες σημασιολογίες οι οπ- οίες δεν είναι εναρμονισμένες με τη φιλοσοφία της εκάστοτε γλώσσας προγραμματισμού και των καλών πρακτικών προγραμματισμού. - Δεν είναι πρακτικές, αφού εισαγάγουν νέες γλώσσες προγραμματισμού, οι οποίες ενώ αντιμετωπίζουν το πρόβλημα αποτελεσματικά, απαιτούν την επανεγγραφή πολύπλοκων βιβλιοθηκών εφαρμογής για την εκάστοστε γλώσσα ειδικού πεδίου. Οι προτεινόμενες γλώσσες προγραμματισμού αποτελούν την επέκταση μιας υπάρχουσας γλώσσας, ή μιας νέας γλώσσας με τελείως διαφορετική σύνταξη. Η παρούσα διδακτορική διατριβή εισαγάγει την J%(j-mod), μια επέκταση της Java για την αποδοτική υποστήριξη γλωσσών ειδικού πεδίου. H επέκταση J% παρέχει έναν τρόπο ενσωμάτωσης γλωσσών ειδικού πεδίου στην Java με τη μορφή τμημάτων (modules) στον μεταγλωττιστή. Κατα την συγγραφή της παρούσης, το J% υποστηρίζει τη γλώσσα SQL και τις κανονικές εκφράσεις. Εκμεταλεύεται τις ήδη υπάρχουσες προγραμματιστικές διεπαφές της Java, όπως για παράδειγμα τη βιβλιοθήκη της Συνδετικότητας Βάσης Δεδομένων (JDBC). Εισαγάγει δε, τα κάτωθι χαρακτηρiστικά: - Τμηματικό Σχεδιασμό- Στατικό Έλεγχο Τύπων- Έλεγχος Συνταντικού Γλώσσας Ειδικού Πεδίου- Διατήρηση Συντακτικού Γλώσσας Ειδικού Πεδίου- Πρακτική- Βελτιστοποιήσεις Ειδικού Πεδίου


scholarly journals Comparing general-purpose and domain-specific languages: An empirical study

2010 ◽  
Vol 7 (2) ◽  
pp. 247-264 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tomaz Kosar ◽  
Nuno Oliveira ◽  
Marjan Mernik ◽  
Varanda Pereira ◽  
Matej Crepinsek ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
User Interfaces ◽  
General Purpose ◽  
Domain Specific Language ◽  
Problem Domain ◽  
Domain Specific Languages ◽  
Cognitive Dimension ◽  
Specific Language ◽  
Domain Specific ◽  
Implementation Approach ◽  
Open Issue

Many domain-specific languages, that try to bring feasible alternatives for existing solutions while simplifying programming work, have come up in recent years. Although, these little languages seem to be easy to use, there is an open issue whether they bring advantages in comparison to the application libraries, which are the most commonly used implementation approach. In this work, we present an experiment, which was carried out to compare such a domain-specific language with a comparable application library. The experiment was conducted with 36 programmers, who have answered a questionnaire on both implementation approaches. The questionnaire is more than 100 pages long. For a domain-specific language and the application library, the same problem domain has been used - construction of graphical user interfaces. In terms of a domain-specific language, XAML has been used and C# Forms for the application library. A cognitive dimension framework has been used for a comparison between XAML and C# Forms.

scholarly journals INTEGRATED DOMAIN-SPECIFIC PROGRAMMING ENVIRONMENT FOR HETEROGENEOUS MANYCORE PLATFORMS

2018 ◽  
pp. 133-144
Author(s):  
A. Yu. Syschikov ◽  
B. N. Sedov ◽  
Yu. E. Sheynin
Keyword(s):  
Embedded Systems ◽  
Development Process ◽  
Programming Environment ◽  
Domain Expert ◽  
Domain Experts ◽  
Domain Specific ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Portable Software ◽  
Complex Technology ◽  
Hardware Platforms

Different classes of problems on the embedded systems market and its needs make manufacturers of embedded systems to design heterogeneous many/multi core hardware platforms. Such platforms includes dozens of different cores: CPU, GPU, DSP, FPGA etc. That makes them incredibly hard to program, especially in case when domain experts are involved in the development process. Usually, domain expert has knowledge in his domain area, but does not fully understand the specificity of programming for heterogeneous manycore platforms. In this article, we propose the complex technology and tools that allows involving domain experts in software development for embedded systems. The proposed technology has various aspects and abilities that can be used to build verifiable and portable software for a wide range of heterogeneous embedded platforms.

scholarly journals Towards a Domain-Specific Modeling Language for Extracting Event Logs from ERP Systems

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (12) ◽  
pp. 5476
Author(s):  
Ana Pajić Simović ◽  
Slađan Babarogić ◽  
Ognjen Pantelić ◽  
Stefan Krstović
Keyword(s):  
Process Mining ◽  
Modeling Language ◽  
Sufficient Information ◽  
Event Data ◽  
Erp Systems ◽  
Domain Experts ◽  
Domain Specific ◽  
Event Logs ◽  
Domain Specific Modeling ◽  
Specific Modeling

Enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems are often seen as viable sources of data for process mining analysis. To perform most of the existing process mining techniques, it is necessary to obtain a valid event log that is fully compliant with the eXtensible Event Stream (XES) standard. In ERP systems, such event logs are not available as the concept of business activity is missing. Extracting event data from an ERP database is not a trivial task and requires in-depth knowledge of the business processes and underlying data structure. Therefore, domain experts require proper techniques and tools for extracting event data from ERP databases. In this paper, we present the full specification of a domain-specific modeling language for facilitating the extraction of appropriate event data from transactional databases by domain experts. The modeling language has been developed to support complex ambiguous cases when using ERP systems. We demonstrate its applicability using a case study with real data and show that the language includes constructs that enable a domain expert to easily model data of interest in the log extraction step. The language provides sufficient information to extract and transform data from transactional ERP databases to the XES format.

scholarly journals Contracts for domain-specific languages in Ruby

2015 ◽  
Vol 50 (2) ◽  
pp. 23-34
Author(s):  
T. Stephen Strickland ◽  
Brianna M. Ren ◽  
Jeffrey S. Foster
Keyword(s):  
Domain Specific Languages ◽  
Domain Specific
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