Steve Cook:

Cameron has been blogging about new features in our product.. In a recent post he used the term Explicit Design. I’ve been reflecting on this, and I like it. In software development we really do need to capture design data that is not just the code, but should be saved and versioned just like the code. What do we call it? We could call it “models” but “model” and “model driven development” are subject to so much historical baggage and methodology and terminology arguments. “Model” just seems to imply baked-in code generation and round tripping, when there is so much more that you can do with it: planning, verifying, testing, refactoring. We need new vocabulary that represents our ability to capture versioned design data at a more abstract level than the code without simultaneously implying the history of CASE.

I have to agree: changing the name doesn’t solve the root of the problem, but perhaps we start thinking in a different way.

As I wrote in a previous post, one of the main problems I saw in Microsoft Visual Studio DSL Tools was the lack of support for UML. I’m not a big fan of UML, but I must recognize that a common modeling language could be helpful in some scenarios.

Now, it seems that Microsoft changed it’s view. Bill Gates announced at Tech·Ed 2008 for Developers that UML will be part of Visual Studio 10. Great news. But this announce does not means that Microsoft is moving away from DSL. As Cameron Skinner wrote in a post, Microsoft will be using an hybrid model, a combination of both approaches: UML at the “logical” layer and DSLs at the “physical” layer. Not as powerful as openArchitectureWare, but a great step forward.

Surely, by the time you read this you will have already read it. Last week, Microsoft released Visual Studio 2008 (codename Orcas).

But what has not been announced are the changes in DSL Tools for VS2008, mainly because there are not any new major features except some changes in the runtime, support for LINQ and lots of bug fixing. Anyway, if you are interested, Stuart Kent, Senior Program Manager with the Visual Studio Ecosystem team, summarizes them in a blog post, and most interesting, he also describes the roadmap for the next version of Visual Studio (codename Rosario).

I’m personally interested in DSL Tools mainly for two reasons. First, because last summer I finished my degree thesis about Model Driven Development, where I’ve been analyzing at length Domain-Specific Modeling and Model-Driven Architecture methodologies. Among other tools, I analyzed the DSL Tools that were part of the VS2005, and I found them one of the best and most advanced tools for designing domain specific graphical notations (as opposed to textual notations, which, depending on the domain problem, are better suited) and for generating code from models. The main problem I saw in this tool was the lack of support for UML and XMI. I’m not a big fan of UML, but I must recognize that, in some cases, a common modeling language helps a lot, specially to reduce the learning curve that it is inherent to all DSLs. I know that this statement sounds opposed to the main concept of DSL, so I will address you to the article “Unified or Domain-Specific Modeling languages?” (thanks Metacase for recovering this article), by S. Ambler, who explains this contradiction very well. Also, the lack of support to XMI limits the interoperability between tools, something I believe Microsoft is not worried at all. Despite of these problems (IMHO), I believe Microsoft has done a really bad job of publicizing this tool, which is one of the pillars of Microsoft’s Software Factories initiative.

By the way, if you are interested in MDD, I would recommend you openArchitectureWare, now part of the Eclipse GMT Project, which is using an hybrid model, since it uses both approaches (MDA and DSM), and it allows both graphical and textual notations. And it is FREE!!!. Just check the overview diagram, so you get an idea of which technologies supports.

The second reason why I’m interested in DSL Tools is because we have successfully applied some external and internal DSLs at work (see this post by M. Fowler to know the differences between external and internal DSL). For a long time, we have been using textual internal DSL’s (PL/I Macros) in order to improve the quality of the code and to abstract the developer of some complex parts of the system, and we are very satisfied with the results. And more recently, we have been using graphical external DSL’s to represent the models for the online transactions which runs on our main backend (a z/OS mainframe) and to generate code addressed specifically to an in-house runtime framework. Last year, when we submitted an RFP to renew our domain-specific tool set, we received several proposals from different vendors, and one of them came up with DSL Tools. We finally decided not to use this tool and, instead, use Eclipse and a modified version of the jBPM plugin. Anyway, as I told you before, I consider DSL Tools one of the most advanced tools for DSM, so, periodically, I try to learn which is the evolution of this tool. And just for your curiosity, here it is the DSL design for our main mainframe architecture using the DSL Tools Designer (yes, it’s a service orchestrator!):

And now to conclude, I am really interested in knowing if someone has a real experience using DSL’s. If this is your case, are you using VS DSL Tools? If not, which tools are you using?

BTW, if you are interested in the thesis document, just drop me a line using the contact form and I will send you it. Be aware that the document is written in Catalan language.

A funny video, remake of a Nutrigrain Web commercial, that Microsoft used at one of its Annual MVP Summit:

And another one, from a Partner Summit:

(Via MS Security Blog)

The Visual Basic team is hosting a series of Live Meeting presentations aimed at the next version of Visual Basic and Visual Studio code named “Orcas”. The presentations are all done by actual team members working on the specific technology, and are a great way to hear from and ask your questions directly to the product team.

• Tuesday, April 24, 2007: VB9 – Orcas Overview. This web cast will cover the breadth of features that you can expect to see in the upcoming release of Visual Basic. John Stallo will demo how all the features such as LinQ, N-Tier, WCF support, and OCS work together to help you build your applications faster than ever before.
• Wednesday, April 25, 2007: VB9 – LinQ Overview. This web cast will explore the new LinQ features in Visual Basic. We will show how to take advantage of LinQ to build applications that query and aggregate data from multiple sources, including in-memory objects, databases, and XML.
• Wednesday, May 02, 2007: VB9 – LINQ to SQL & O/R Designer Deep Dive. This web cast extends the SQL and LinQ web cast by showing you how to use the new OR designer to build applications that take advantage of LinQ to SQL.
• Wednesday, May 09, 2007: VB9 – Building N-Tier Applications. In this web cast, Young Joo will show you how you can separate business logic from data access logic using the new N-Tier features in Visual Basic.
• Wednesday, May 16, 2007: VB9 – Offline Data Caching. This web cast demonstrates one of the newest features in Visual Basic. Milind Lele will demonstrate how to use SQL Server Compact Edition to build applications that can cache your data offline and have it automatically sync to your database when you are online.
• Wednesday, May 23, 2007: VB9 – Deep Dive into LinQ. This web cast will dive into details how the LinQ features work. In the process, we will discuss anonymous types, type inference, inline functions, extension methods, and how these features work together to give you the LinQ experience. In addition, we will demo how these features can be used independently to help you build your applications quicker and with less code.
• Wednesday, May 30, 2007: VB9 – Building Service-Oriented Applications with WCF. This web cast will show you how you can produce and consume WCF services using the new WCF support with Visual Basic and build applications that take advantage of the next-generation service architecture.
• Wednesday, June 06, 2007: Using the Interop Toolkit to Migrate your VB6 Applications to .NET. This web cast takes a look at how you can use the Interop Toolkit to migrate your VB 6 applications to the .NET platform, and also discusses strategies you can use to migrate your VB 6 applications to the .NET platform.
• Wednesday, June 13, 2007: LINQ Best Practices. This web cast will explore best practices for writing easy to read, consumable queries, including naming, usage, and performance ideas.

(Via Beth Massi)

S. Somasegar, Microsoft Corporate VP of the Developer Division, has announced that Beta 1 of the Professional version of Orcas, the next version of Visual Studio, Visual Studio Team System and Visual Studio Team Foundation Server, is ready for download.

This beta version also includes the .Net Framework release 3.5 and a first CTP pre-beta build of the Express version of Orcas for non-professional programmers and hobbyists. At this Channel 9 video, Somasegar talks more in depth about this new version and about the next release of Visual Studio Team System Tools post Orcas codenamed “Rosario”.

Orcas Beta 1 is available as installation media ISO images or as VPC images with the software pre-installed. In addition, you can download prerelease versions of Visual Basic Express, Visual C++ Express, Visual C# Express, and Visual Web Developer.

As Mary Jo Foley points out, “Microsoft execs said earlier this week to expect a Beta 2 of Orcas later this year. The final version of Orcas may be released to manufacturing by the end of calendar 2007, but could slip into 2008, they said.”

A two weeks-old news, but very important in the IDE arena.

According to a Evans Data Winter 2006 EMEA Development Survey (almost 400 developers ), “the adoption rate of Eclipse has more than doubled in the EMEA region, making it the first IDE to challenge Microsoft Visual Studio.NET among developers there”.

John Andrews, Evans Data president, told that “Microsoft has dominated languages since the early ’90s, but we are seeing much more parity now”. Anyway, Visual Studio is the de facto IDE for most engineers, despite it’s dramatic erosion.

I get a copy of the last The Architecture Journal, by Microsoft, obtained by my manager at the Microsoft Strategic Architect Forum (SAF).

This issue is focused on “Software Factories” (I don’t like this name, it could be confusing) and it has nice articles that explains some experiences with DSL and how to fit into the software factories methodology. One of the articles is from Jack Greenfield, co-author of Software Factories: Assembling Applications with Patterns, Models, Frameworks, and Tools.

Through Mike Walker’s blog, I just know that Microsoft has announced a new initiative, called “Banking Integration Factory“, that provides prescriptive architecture guidance, tools and reference implementations aimed at achieving consistency in banking integration. At the MSDN Banking Industry Center there are some articles describing it. It’s worth reading.

Sanjay Narang has published a new article on MSDN about automating a life-cyle methodology in VSTS. Here is the summary:

There is a diverse set of methodologies for different types of software-development life cycles. To implement these methodologies effectively and consistently, it is important to have life-cycle tools that automate the processes and artifacts of the methodologies. Microsoft Visual Studio Team System (VSTS) provides a compelling solution for methodology management and automation.

(Via Rob Caron)