Four Interesting DSLs

Here are a few interesting DSLs. Traditional programming languages are usually textual documents with lots of ; a few foo(..) and maybe a data Bar = .... But this is not always the case! Below are four DSLs.

1. A traditional textual language to generate graphics.
2. An ascii visual language to generate graphics.
3. A graphical language to generate hardware.

Diagrams

Diagrams is a Haskell embedded DSL for creating vector graphics. Here is some diagrams DSL code:

Diagrams code

circleSqT   = square 1 `atop` circle 1 # translate (r2 (0.5, 0.3))
circleSqHT  = square 1 ||| circle 1 # translate (r2 (0.5, 0.3))
circleSqHT2 = square 1 ||| circle 1 # translate (r2 (19.5, 0.3))
example = hcat [circleSqT, strutX 1, circleSqHT, strutX 1, circleSqHT2]

Diagrams output

Ditaa

Ditaa is a small command-line utility that converts diagrams drawn using ascii art into bitmap graphics.

Ditaa code

    +--------+   +-------+    +-------+
    |        | --+ ditaa +--> |       |
    |  Text  |   +-------+    |diagram|
    |Document|   |!magic!|    |       |
    |     {d}|   |       |    |       |
    +---+----+   +-------+    +-------+
        :                         ^
        |       Lots of work      |
        +-------------------------+

Ditaa output

Needle

Needle is a domain specific language for ASCII-fied arrow notation.

Needle code

{-# LANGUAGE QuasiQuotes #-}

fNeedle :: (Int, Int, Int) -> (Int, Int, Int, Int)
fNeedle = [nd|
    }=={(+1)}=\==========================>
              \
    }===\     \             /============>
        \     \             /
    }=) \ (==={uncurry div}=/={negate}===>
        \
        \=={(*2)}========================>
|]

Needle output

*Main> fNeedle (1,2,3)
(2,0,0,4)

"G" in LabVIEW

This is my favourite DSL of the four, because what is shown below is a while loop structure in the G language. National Instruments might not describe "G" as a DSL, but it certainly is one. LabVIEW is a system-design platform and development environment for "G", a visual programming language from National Instruments.

G code

G output

The LabVIEW generates a bitfile from an algorithm design expressed in G, which can be used to configure an FPGA.