DSL Recommendation

[Mohan Radhakrishnan <ra...@gmail.com>]

Hi,
     I didn't know Groovy DSL's could be almost like plain english as shown
in
http://docs.groovy-lang.org/docs/latest/html/documentation/core-domain-
specific-languages.html

Is that the latest recommendation ?  My use case is this.

I would like to create a small library to create XPath axes(
https://www.w3schools.com/xml/xpath_axes.asp) using a DSL.

Something like this.

id of ancestor of descendant of Node

This is just to create a more flexible way of using XPath expressions. I
don't plan to completely implement all expressions. Just a few.

Thanks,
Mohan

Re: DSL Recommendation

[Mohan Radhakrishnan <ra...@gmail.com>]

The DSL will be used by other developers. It may seem counter-intuitive but
the team members are using Selenium and they code in a hurry. Selenium is
used here
to develop a Robotic Process Automation application. It is not used for
testing.

There is a need to abstract away some complicated XPath to help them. The
sad part is that the power of Groovy or even JDK 8 isn't used properly in
this particular RPA tool.
It is rather primitive in this case.

Thanks,
Mohan

On 10 January 2018 at 22:12, Jochen Theodorou <bl...@gmx.org> wrote:

>
>
> Am 10.01.2018 um 15:35 schrieb Mohan Radhakrishnan:
>
>> Hi,
>>       I didn't know Groovy DSL's could be almost like plain english as
>> shown in
>> http://docs.groovy-lang.org/docs/latest/html/documentation/
>> core-domain-specific-languages.html <http://docs.groovy-lang.org/d
>> ocs/latest/html/documentation/core-domain-specific-languages.html>
>>
>> Is that the latest recommendation ?  My use case is this.
>>
>> I would like to create a small library to create XPath axes(
>> https://www.w3schools.com/xml/xpath_axes.asp <
>> https://www.w3schools.com/xml/xpath_axes.asp>) using a DSL.
>>
>> Something like this.
>>
> >
>
>> id of ancestor of descendant of Node
>>
>> This is just to create a more flexible way of using XPath expressions. I
>> don't plan to completely implement all expressions. Just a few.
>>
>
>
> DSLs are always depending on who is going to use them. If they know Xpath
> a bit, then GPath: http://groovy-lang.org/processing-xml.html#_gpath
> would be my recommendation. Your suggestion for example is different than
> the often used top-down approach and is instead bottom-up. This can lead to
> a problem if your target audience is not used to that. On the other hand
> this can be exactly right... It really depends. Who is going to use it.
>
> bye Jochen
>

Re: DSL Recommendation

[Jochen Theodorou <bl...@gmx.org>]

Am 10.01.2018 um 15:35 schrieb Mohan Radhakrishnan:
> Hi,
>       I didn't know Groovy DSL's could be almost like plain english as 
> shown in
> http://docs.groovy-lang.org/docs/latest/html/documentation/core-domain-specific-languages.html 
> <http://docs.groovy-lang.org/docs/latest/html/documentation/core-domain-specific-languages.html>
> 
> Is that the latest recommendation ?  My use case is this.
> 
> I would like to create a small library to create XPath 
> axes(https://www.w3schools.com/xml/xpath_axes.asp 
> <https://www.w3schools.com/xml/xpath_axes.asp>) using a DSL.
> 
> Something like this.
 >
> id of ancestor of descendant of Node
> 
> This is just to create a more flexible way of using XPath expressions. I 
> don't plan to completely implement all expressions. Just a few.


DSLs are always depending on who is going to use them. If they know 
Xpath a bit, then GPath: 
http://groovy-lang.org/processing-xml.html#_gpath would be my 
recommendation. Your suggestion for example is different than the often 
used top-down approach and is instead bottom-up. This can lead to a 
problem if your target audience is not used to that. On the other hand 
this can be exactly right... It really depends. Who is going to use it.

bye Jochen