Domain-specific software languages (DSLs) have received considerable attention over the last two decades. DSLs are specifically tailored to the needs of a particular problem or application domain. The promise of DSLs is that domain experts (from technical as well as non-technical domains) can understand, validate, modify, test, and sometimes even develop models and software programs using DSLs.
Domain-specific language engineering involves architectural decision-making in different phases of the development process. For example, DSL engineers can choose from different options on how to realize a DSL's language model (abstract syntax), on the DSL style to be adopted (internal vs. external DSLs), on the means to define a DSL's semantics, on the concrete syntax style (e.g. graphical, textual, or both), and on critical technology choices (e.g., host languages, language workbenches, metamodeling infrastructure). The DSL as well as the corresponding infrastructure components (such as parser, generator, or DSL editor) form parts of the respective software architecture, often assisting in realizing a particular architectural style, pattern, or tactic.
Topics
Despite the growing popularity of DSL-based architectures and a considerable body of knowledge on DSL engineering, there is little documented evidence and reflection on DSL-related architectural knowledge and DSL-based architectures. Therefore, we are looking for contributions on, but not limited to, the following topics:
- Architectural designs adopting domain-specific software languages (DSLs);
- Architectural concerns of DSLs;
- Architectural viewpoints on DSLs;
- Quality attributes of DSLs and DSL-based software systems (e.g., maintainability, testability, usability);
- Applying architectural patterns, styles, and tactics for engineering DSLs;
- Architectural design rationale (ADR) in DSL engineering;
- Process models and guidelines for developing DSLs and DSL-based software architectures;
- Engineering Architecture Description Languages (ADLs) and Architecture DSLs (ADSLs);
- Empirical studies on applying architectural knowledge and on documenting ADR in engineering DSLs or DSL-based software systems;
- Software tools and development environments for architecture-aware DSL engineering;
Submissions
We invite short papers (4 pages long) and full papers (8 pages) in ACM proceedings format (Option 2: Alternate Style). Full papers report on research results regarding one or several of the above topics. Short papers may report on future research, research-in-progress, and position statements. The papers will be reviewed by 2 (short papers) and 3 PC members (full papers), respectively.
Manuscripts must be submitted using easychair.org .
Accepted papers will are published in the ACM Digital Library as part of the joint ECSA workshop proceedings .
Workshop Format
There will be the keynote prior to the actual paper sessions. In each paper session, we will have 2-3 papers for presentation. We will allocate for each accepted paper 20 minutes for presentation and 10 minutes for discussion. We will assign to each paper a devil's advocate whose task is to prepare 2 or 3 critical, yet constructive questions to foster a discussion in the workshop plenum.
