Evolving a DSL Implementation

Domain Specific Languages (DSLs) are small languages designed for use in a specific domain. DSLs typically evolve quite radically throughout their lifetime, but current DSL implementation approaches are often clumsy in the face of such evolution. In this paper, the authors present a case study of an DSL evolving in its syntax, semantics, and robustness, implemented in the Converge language. This shows how real-world DSL implementations can evolve along with changing requirements. Developing complex software in a General Purpose Language (GPL) often leads to situations where problems are not naturally expressible within the chosen GPL.