Is My DSL a Modeling or Programming Language?

It is often difficult to discern the differences between programming and modeling languages. As an example, the term "Domain-specific language" has been used almost interchangeably in academia and industry to represent both programming and modeling languages, which has caused subtle misconceptions. The borders between a modeling and programming language are somewhat vague and not defined crisply. This paper discusses the similarities and differences between modeling and programming languages, and offers some suggestions on how to better differentiate such languages. A list of criteria is presented for language classification, but it is suggested that a set of the criteria be used, rather than a single criterion. Several example domain-specific languages are used as case studies to motivate the discussion.