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You're arguing a technical detail. I agree with you, but in my opinion it's not important, so I'm not going to chase down every little language option here out
by DanielBMarkham 16y ago
You're arguing a technical detail. I agree with you, but in my opinion it's not important, so I'm not going to chase down every little language option here out there. It would turn our discussion quickly into a weird kind of trivia contest.
The point is that understanding DSLs is a key concept for a programmer. Wrapping that up into your toolbox gives you a huge advantage. From there you can appreciate (or not) these other things.
- rbanffy 16y agoI see what you mean, but creating a DSL on top of a grammar like C's is more like creating a jargon than a language. Like when you catch two astronauts talking, you can't make out any of the nouns, some of the verbs, but the structure is still familiar - it's English (or Chinese, or Russian) with a new set of nouns and verbs. You don't have a domain-specific language - you just have domain-specific words. Languages such as Lisp are uniquely well suited for that because you can redefine almost anything, including language parts that other languages consider reserved words. With it, you can create other language that's free to create not only its own verbs and nouns, but its own grammar rules.