I thought of that as well, but the reach of the idea goes a long way past DSLs. It definitely applies to programming language construction in general and to alm

I thought of that as well, but the reach of the idea goes a long way past DSLs. It definitely applies to programming language construction in general and to almost anything you can do with computers. Find the right abstractions that gives you the right amount of details while at the same time give you the tools to scale your reasoning about a problem, and you can move mountains. Find the wrong balance, and you will end up with a cluttery hell that is impossible to maintain or a blunt tool that doesn't do anything well.