[Haskell-cafe] What *is* a DSL?

[Don Stewart]

dpiponi:
> 2009/10/7 Joe Fredette <jfredett at gmail.com>:
> > Let me add to this, as I've used the term "DSL" without (*gasp*) fully
> > understanding it before.
> >
> > In addition to "What is a DSL", I'd like to ask:
> >
> > "How is a DSL different from an API?"
> 
> I don't think there is a sharp divide here. A nice example was given
> by Pat Hanrahan at the recent nvidia GPU conference. He proposed the
> idea that OpenGL was a DSL. His reasoning was that he could give a
> formal grammar that accurately captured the structure of many
> fragments of code making calls to OpenGL. For example you have blocks
> of code bracketed by glBegin() and glEnd() with sequences of
> primitives in between. In fact, some people indent their code to
> reflect this structure as if glBegin() and glEnd() were control
> structures within the host language.
> 
> I've argued that every monad gives a DSL. They all have the same
> syntax - do-notation, but each choice of monad gives quite different
> semantics for this notation. For example the list monad gives a DSL
> for non-determinism.

I've informally argued that a true DSL -- separate from a good API --
should have semantic characteristics of a language: binding forms,
control structures, abstraction, composition. Some have type systems.

Basic DSLs may only have a few charateristics of languages though -- a
(partial) grammar. That's closer to a well-defined API in my books.

-- Don