language parallax

I just ran across a google video of David Pollack talking about implementing DSL’s in Ruby:

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-8103284744220333344&q=google+tech+talk

His first example DSL “SiteMap” a great example of how this technique can be used to deal with equality constraints (such as the name of a jsp pages) scattered throughout the scaffolding.

I’m not sure if he’s thinking about round-tripping or reverse engineering, but the DSL part of the vision is informative. Also: It seems he could really benefit from mixed-syntax, structured editors.

The video mentions his site at dppruby.com, which now redirects to blog.circleshare.com. I see some references to “lift” web application framework implemented in scala. Unfortunately I don’t have much time to process this all right now, but it certainly warrants a look in the future.

I’m also happy to see a strong “anti ruby fascism” post on the blog… It’s not easy beating back the “one true way” crowds!