J. Denkers
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1
OIL
An industrial case study in language engineering with Spoofax
Journal article
(2025)
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Olav Bunte, Jasper Denkers, Louis C.M. van Gool, Jurgen J. Vinju, Eelco Visser, Tim A.C. Willemse, Andy Zaidman
Domain-specific languages (DSLs) promise to improve the software engineering process, e.g., by reducing software development and maintenance effort and by improving communication, and are therefore seeing increased use in industry. To support the creation and deployment of DSLs, language workbenches have been developed. However, little is published about the actual added value of a language workbench in an industrial setting, compared to not using a language workbench. In this paper, we evaluate the productivity of using the Spoofax language workbench by comparing two implementations of an industrial DSL, one in Spoofax and one in Python, that already existed before the evaluation. The subject is the Open Interaction Language (OIL): a complex DSL for implementing control software with requirements imposed by its industrial context at Canon Production Printing. Our findings indicate that it is more productive to implement OIL using Spoofax compared to using Python, especially if editor services are desired. Although Spoofax was sufficient to implement OIL, we find that Spoofax should especially improve on practical aspects to increase its adoptability in industry.
...
Domain-specific languages (DSLs) promise to improve the software engineering process, e.g., by reducing software development and maintenance effort and by improving communication, and are therefore seeing increased use in industry. To support the creation and deployment of DSLs, language workbenches have been developed. However, little is published about the actual added value of a language workbench in an industrial setting, compared to not using a language workbench. In this paper, we evaluate the productivity of using the Spoofax language workbench by comparing two implementations of an industrial DSL, one in Spoofax and one in Python, that already existed before the evaluation. The subject is the Open Interaction Language (OIL): a complex DSL for implementing control software with requirements imposed by its industrial context at Canon Production Printing. Our findings indicate that it is more productive to implement OIL using Spoofax compared to using Python, especially if editor services are desired. Although Spoofax was sufficient to implement OIL, we find that Spoofax should especially improve on practical aspects to increase its adoptability in industry.
Tools used in software engineering often balance a tradeoff between generality and specificity. The most important tools in software engineering are programming languages, and the most common ones are General-Purpose Languages (GPLs). Because of their generality, GPLs can be used to develop many kinds of software. Domain-Specific Languages (DSLs) are a more specific counterpart; they are programming languages tailored to a specific domain. DSLs are not generally applicable but can be more effective for developing software within their particular domain. DSLs can be beneficial if their benefits outweigh the investments. In practice, it is hard to predict whether a DSL will be beneficial.
Language workbenches are tools for developing and deploying DSLs. They aim to reduce the investment that is required for DSLs and to improve the usability of the created DSLs. By lowering the investment, language workbenches can improve the opportunity for DSLs to be effective. Although much academic work has been published about the underlying technology and concepts of language workbenches, there is little empirical evidence on the actual impact of language workbenches in practice.
In this dissertation, we contribute such empirical evidence on the creation and evaluation of DSLs that are developed with language workbenches. We do so by conducting case studies in an industrial setting. This is important, as such empirical evidence can help others to determine whether to adopt DSLs developed with language workbenches. In particular, we use and evaluate Spoofax, a language workbench developed at the Delft University of Technology.
The context of our work is Canon Production Printing, a digital printing systems manufacturing company. Canon Production Printing provides a good environment for evaluating DSLs as they have obtained extensive domain knowledge for complex domains like modeling behavior, performance, and physical aspects of printing systems. We develop and evaluate DSLs for two of such domains. First, we develop CSX, a new DSL for the domain of configuration spaces of digital printing systems. Second, we reimplement OIL, an existing DSL for control software based on state machines. In both cases, we compare the newly created DSL with the existing situation.
For both cases, we draw generally positive conclusions. For example, in the CSX project, the DSL enables the use of constraint-solving technology which aids automatic and accurate configuration of printing systems, which can ultimately improve the quality, performance, and usability of printing systems. In the OIL project, we found that Spoofax is more than adequate for developing a complex DSL with industrial requirements and we found indications that it is more productive to develop a DSL with Spoofax compared to using a GPL and available libraries.
Our extensive case studies at Canon Production Printing have taught us valuable lessons and insights. In particular, to make good on the promise of DSLs in industry, language workbenches need to improve in terms of the non-functional aspects. We expect that improving on, e.g., portability, usability, and documentation will improve the impact of Spoofax on industrial DSL development.
...
Language workbenches are tools for developing and deploying DSLs. They aim to reduce the investment that is required for DSLs and to improve the usability of the created DSLs. By lowering the investment, language workbenches can improve the opportunity for DSLs to be effective. Although much academic work has been published about the underlying technology and concepts of language workbenches, there is little empirical evidence on the actual impact of language workbenches in practice.
In this dissertation, we contribute such empirical evidence on the creation and evaluation of DSLs that are developed with language workbenches. We do so by conducting case studies in an industrial setting. This is important, as such empirical evidence can help others to determine whether to adopt DSLs developed with language workbenches. In particular, we use and evaluate Spoofax, a language workbench developed at the Delft University of Technology.
The context of our work is Canon Production Printing, a digital printing systems manufacturing company. Canon Production Printing provides a good environment for evaluating DSLs as they have obtained extensive domain knowledge for complex domains like modeling behavior, performance, and physical aspects of printing systems. We develop and evaluate DSLs for two of such domains. First, we develop CSX, a new DSL for the domain of configuration spaces of digital printing systems. Second, we reimplement OIL, an existing DSL for control software based on state machines. In both cases, we compare the newly created DSL with the existing situation.
For both cases, we draw generally positive conclusions. For example, in the CSX project, the DSL enables the use of constraint-solving technology which aids automatic and accurate configuration of printing systems, which can ultimately improve the quality, performance, and usability of printing systems. In the OIL project, we found that Spoofax is more than adequate for developing a complex DSL with industrial requirements and we found indications that it is more productive to develop a DSL with Spoofax compared to using a GPL and available libraries.
Our extensive case studies at Canon Production Printing have taught us valuable lessons and insights. In particular, to make good on the promise of DSLs in industry, language workbenches need to improve in terms of the non-functional aspects. We expect that improving on, e.g., portability, usability, and documentation will improve the impact of Spoofax on industrial DSL development.
...
Tools used in software engineering often balance a tradeoff between generality and specificity. The most important tools in software engineering are programming languages, and the most common ones are General-Purpose Languages (GPLs). Because of their generality, GPLs can be used to develop many kinds of software. Domain-Specific Languages (DSLs) are a more specific counterpart; they are programming languages tailored to a specific domain. DSLs are not generally applicable but can be more effective for developing software within their particular domain. DSLs can be beneficial if their benefits outweigh the investments. In practice, it is hard to predict whether a DSL will be beneficial.
Language workbenches are tools for developing and deploying DSLs. They aim to reduce the investment that is required for DSLs and to improve the usability of the created DSLs. By lowering the investment, language workbenches can improve the opportunity for DSLs to be effective. Although much academic work has been published about the underlying technology and concepts of language workbenches, there is little empirical evidence on the actual impact of language workbenches in practice.
In this dissertation, we contribute such empirical evidence on the creation and evaluation of DSLs that are developed with language workbenches. We do so by conducting case studies in an industrial setting. This is important, as such empirical evidence can help others to determine whether to adopt DSLs developed with language workbenches. In particular, we use and evaluate Spoofax, a language workbench developed at the Delft University of Technology.
The context of our work is Canon Production Printing, a digital printing systems manufacturing company. Canon Production Printing provides a good environment for evaluating DSLs as they have obtained extensive domain knowledge for complex domains like modeling behavior, performance, and physical aspects of printing systems. We develop and evaluate DSLs for two of such domains. First, we develop CSX, a new DSL for the domain of configuration spaces of digital printing systems. Second, we reimplement OIL, an existing DSL for control software based on state machines. In both cases, we compare the newly created DSL with the existing situation.
For both cases, we draw generally positive conclusions. For example, in the CSX project, the DSL enables the use of constraint-solving technology which aids automatic and accurate configuration of printing systems, which can ultimately improve the quality, performance, and usability of printing systems. In the OIL project, we found that Spoofax is more than adequate for developing a complex DSL with industrial requirements and we found indications that it is more productive to develop a DSL with Spoofax compared to using a GPL and available libraries.
Our extensive case studies at Canon Production Printing have taught us valuable lessons and insights. In particular, to make good on the promise of DSLs in industry, language workbenches need to improve in terms of the non-functional aspects. We expect that improving on, e.g., portability, usability, and documentation will improve the impact of Spoofax on industrial DSL development.
Language workbenches are tools for developing and deploying DSLs. They aim to reduce the investment that is required for DSLs and to improve the usability of the created DSLs. By lowering the investment, language workbenches can improve the opportunity for DSLs to be effective. Although much academic work has been published about the underlying technology and concepts of language workbenches, there is little empirical evidence on the actual impact of language workbenches in practice.
In this dissertation, we contribute such empirical evidence on the creation and evaluation of DSLs that are developed with language workbenches. We do so by conducting case studies in an industrial setting. This is important, as such empirical evidence can help others to determine whether to adopt DSLs developed with language workbenches. In particular, we use and evaluate Spoofax, a language workbench developed at the Delft University of Technology.
The context of our work is Canon Production Printing, a digital printing systems manufacturing company. Canon Production Printing provides a good environment for evaluating DSLs as they have obtained extensive domain knowledge for complex domains like modeling behavior, performance, and physical aspects of printing systems. We develop and evaluate DSLs for two of such domains. First, we develop CSX, a new DSL for the domain of configuration spaces of digital printing systems. Second, we reimplement OIL, an existing DSL for control software based on state machines. In both cases, we compare the newly created DSL with the existing situation.
For both cases, we draw generally positive conclusions. For example, in the CSX project, the DSL enables the use of constraint-solving technology which aids automatic and accurate configuration of printing systems, which can ultimately improve the quality, performance, and usability of printing systems. In the OIL project, we found that Spoofax is more than adequate for developing a complex DSL with industrial requirements and we found indications that it is more productive to develop a DSL with Spoofax compared to using a GPL and available libraries.
Our extensive case studies at Canon Production Printing have taught us valuable lessons and insights. In particular, to make good on the promise of DSLs in industry, language workbenches need to improve in terms of the non-functional aspects. We expect that improving on, e.g., portability, usability, and documentation will improve the impact of Spoofax on industrial DSL development.
Taming complexity of industrial printing systems using a constraint-based DSL
An industrial experience report
Journal article
(2023)
-
Jasper Denkers, Marvin Brunner, Louis van Gool, Jurgen J. Vinju, Andy Zaidman, Eelco Visser
Flexible printing systems are highly complex systems that consist of printers, that print individual sheets of paper, and finishing equipment, that processes sheets after printing, for example, assembling a book. Integrating finishing equipment with printers involves the development of control software that configures the devices, taking hardware constraints into account. This control software is highly complex to realize due to (1) the intertwined nature of printing and finishing, (2) the large variety of print products and production options for a given product, and (3) the large range of finishers produced by different vendors. We have developed a domain-specific language called CSX that offers an interface to constraint solving specific to the printing domain. We use it to model printing and finishing devices and to automatically derive constraint solver-based environments for automatic configuration. We evaluate CSX on its coverage of the printing domain in an industrial context, and we report on lessons learned on using a constraint-based DSL in an industrial context.
...
Flexible printing systems are highly complex systems that consist of printers, that print individual sheets of paper, and finishing equipment, that processes sheets after printing, for example, assembling a book. Integrating finishing equipment with printers involves the development of control software that configures the devices, taking hardware constraints into account. This control software is highly complex to realize due to (1) the intertwined nature of printing and finishing, (2) the large variety of print products and production options for a given product, and (3) the large range of finishers produced by different vendors. We have developed a domain-specific language called CSX that offers an interface to constraint solving specific to the printing domain. We use it to model printing and finishing devices and to automatically derive constraint solver-based environments for automatic configuration. We evaluate CSX on its coverage of the printing domain in an industrial context, and we report on lessons learned on using a constraint-based DSL in an industrial context.
Within the printing industry, much of the variety in printed applications comes from the variety in finishing. Finishing comprises the processing of sheets of paper after being printed, e.g. to form books. The configuration space of finishers, i.e. all possible configurations given the available features and hardware capabilities, are large. Current control software minimally assists operators in finding useful configurations. Using a classical modelling and integration approach to support a variety of configuration spaces is suboptimal with respect to operatability, development time, and maintenance burden.
In this paper, we explore the use of a modeling language for finishers to realize optimizing decision making over configuration parameters in a systematic way and to reduce development time by generating control software from models.
We present CSX, a domain-specific language for high-level declarative specification of finishers that supports specification of the configuration parameters and the automated exploration of the configuration space of finishers. The language serves as an interface to constraint solving, i.e., we use low-level SMT constraint solving to find configurations for high-level specifications. We present a denotational semantics that expresses a translation of CSX specifications to SMT constraints. We describe the implementation of the CSX compiler and the CSX programming environment (IDE), which supports well-formedness checking, inhabitance checking, and interactive configuration space exploration. We evaluate CSX by modelling two realistic finishers. Benchmarks show that CSX has practical performance (<1s) for several scenarios of configuration space exploration.
...
Within the printing industry, much of the variety in printed applications comes from the variety in finishing. Finishing comprises the processing of sheets of paper after being printed, e.g. to form books. The configuration space of finishers, i.e. all possible configurations given the available features and hardware capabilities, are large. Current control software minimally assists operators in finding useful configurations. Using a classical modelling and integration approach to support a variety of configuration spaces is suboptimal with respect to operatability, development time, and maintenance burden.
In this paper, we explore the use of a modeling language for finishers to realize optimizing decision making over configuration parameters in a systematic way and to reduce development time by generating control software from models.
We present CSX, a domain-specific language for high-level declarative specification of finishers that supports specification of the configuration parameters and the automated exploration of the configuration space of finishers. The language serves as an interface to constraint solving, i.e., we use low-level SMT constraint solving to find configurations for high-level specifications. We present a denotational semantics that expresses a translation of CSX specifications to SMT constraints. We describe the implementation of the CSX compiler and the CSX programming environment (IDE), which supports well-formedness checking, inhabitance checking, and interactive configuration space exploration. We evaluate CSX by modelling two realistic finishers. Benchmarks show that CSX has practical performance (<1s) for several scenarios of configuration space exploration.
Domain-specific languages (DSLs) have extensively been investigated in research and have frequently been applied in practice for over 20 years. While DSLs have been attributed improvements in terms of productivity, maintainability, and taming accidental complexity, surprisingly, we know little about their actual impact on the software engineering practice. This PhD project, that is done in close collaboration with our industrial partner Océ - A Canon Company, offers a unique opportunity to study the application of DSLs using a longitudinal field study. In particular, we focus on introducing DSLs with language workbenches, i.e., infrastructures for designing and deploying DSLs, for projects that are already running for several years and for which extensive domain analysis outcomes are available. In doing so, we expect to gain a novel perspective on DSLs in practice. Additionally, we aim to derive best practices for DSL development and to identify and overcome limitations in the current state-of-the-art tooling for DSLs.
...
Domain-specific languages (DSLs) have extensively been investigated in research and have frequently been applied in practice for over 20 years. While DSLs have been attributed improvements in terms of productivity, maintainability, and taming accidental complexity, surprisingly, we know little about their actual impact on the software engineering practice. This PhD project, that is done in close collaboration with our industrial partner Océ - A Canon Company, offers a unique opportunity to study the application of DSLs using a longitudinal field study. In particular, we focus on introducing DSLs with language workbenches, i.e., infrastructures for designing and deploying DSLs, for projects that are already running for several years and for which extensive domain analysis outcomes are available. In doing so, we expect to gain a novel perspective on DSLs in practice. Additionally, we aim to derive best practices for DSL development and to identify and overcome limitations in the current state-of-the-art tooling for DSLs.
We present a tool architecture that supports migrating custom domain-specific language (DSL) implementations to a language workbench. We demonstrate an implementation of this architecture for models in the domains of defining component interfaces (IDL) and modeling system behavior (OIL) which are developed and used at a digital printer manufacturing company. Increasing complexity and the lack of DSL syntax and IDE support for existing implementations in Python based on XML syntax hindered their evolution and adoption. A reimplementation in Spoofax using modular language definition enables composition between IDL and OIL and introduces more concise DSL syntax and IDE support. The presented tool supports migrating to new implementations while being backward compatible with existing syntax and related tooling.
...
We present a tool architecture that supports migrating custom domain-specific language (DSL) implementations to a language workbench. We demonstrate an implementation of this architecture for models in the domains of defining component interfaces (IDL) and modeling system behavior (OIL) which are developed and used at a digital printer manufacturing company. Increasing complexity and the lack of DSL syntax and IDE support for existing implementations in Python based on XML syntax hindered their evolution and adoption. A reimplementation in Spoofax using modular language definition enables composition between IDL and OIL and introduces more concise DSL syntax and IDE support. The presented tool supports migrating to new implementations while being backward compatible with existing syntax and related tooling.