Chris's Wiki :: blog/tech/DSLIsNotHumanReadable Commentshttps://utcc.utoronto.ca/~cks/space/blog/tech/DSLIsNotHumanReadable?atomcommentsDWiki2010-03-23T11:20:16ZRecent comments in Chris's Wiki :: blog/tech/DSLIsNotHumanReadable.From 87.236.251.199 on /blog/tech/DSLIsNotHumanReadabletag:CSpace:blog/tech/DSLIsNotHumanReadable:862c67768c755c9536542bdf286a3c947c9b5490From 87.236.251.199<div class="wikitext"><p>I think this misses the point.</p>
<p>First of all, "human-readable" as a term doesn't imply that something is automatically comprehensible, merely that it is relatively comprehensible by a human. You can't read English either without learning the semantics attached to words, grammar, punctuation, etc. and yet it is clearly human-readable.</p>
<p>Second, I don't think the goal of DSLs is to be "human-readable" (though obviously it is more or less a given that they are). DSLs are designed to be as expressive as possible for the domain at which they are targeted. That is to say that you can implement what you need in the domain with as little verbosity and duplication as possible and that you can make needed changes in as small an area as possible. Further, a well-designed DSL should be as clear as possible (by virtue of being limited in scope and of mapping naturally to the user's own domain of knowledge.</p>
<p>None of this is to suggest that a DSL is appropriate in all contexts where a configuration file might be used, however.</p>
</div>2010-03-23T11:20:16ZFrom 193.201.135.244 on /blog/tech/DSLIsNotHumanReadabletag:CSpace:blog/tech/DSLIsNotHumanReadable:9abc62ebb7966a4655f14eee9f66549d673a1017From 193.201.135.244<div class="wikitext"><p>Couldn't agree more that an English-like programming language is a <em>huge</em> mistake, I offer AppleScript as the exemplar (<a href="http://userweb.cs.utexas.edu/~wcook/Drafts/2006/ashopl.pdf">http://userweb.cs.utexas.edu/~wcook/Drafts/2006/ashopl.pdf</a> , pdf) and what is baffling is that people <a href="http://www.testplant.com/products/eggplant_functional_tester">continue to make that mistake</a>.</p>
<p>David</p>
</div>2010-03-23T09:12:49Z