Episode 8: Juha Pekka-Tolvanen on Domain-Specific Modeling

Guest: Juha Pekka-Tolvanen Host: Daniel Steinberg Every application domain has its own language. It has vocabulary, rules, and constraints. Historically, we have written software by implementing these vocabulary terms, rules, and constraints in a "high-level language" such as C++ or Java, or using a modeling language such as UML. What gets Juha Pekka-Tolvanen of MetaCase out of bed every morning is a desire to improve in a fundamental way the productivity of software developers. He draws inspiration from studies that show it possible to achieve 500% to 1000% improvements -- not just in the speed of development, but also in the quality of the software produced. At ooPSLA, Pekka-Tolvanen will lead the The 7th OOPSLA Workshop on Domain-Specific Modeling, along with Jeffrey Gray (University of Alabama at Birmingham), Matti Rossi (Helsinki School of Economics), and Jonathan Sprinkle (University of California, Berkeley). This workshop will share community experience using domain-specific modeling for software development. Among the topics of the workshop are experience reports from industry and academia, the creation of metamodel-based languages, novel approaches for code generation from domain-specific models, issues in supporting and maintaining systems built with DSMs, and tool support. Papers range from typical information technology domains to hard-core scientific areas such as nuclear physics and the simulation of chemical processes. In this podcast, Juha joins Daniel Steinberg of DimSumThinking to talk about the process and benefits of creating domain-specific models, the results of last year's workshop, and what is in store for this year's workshop.