[Haskell-cafe] On DSLs - one last time

[Günther Schmidt]

Hi all,

I'd like to summarize my impressions on the DSL issue, gathered from the  
responses to my posts.

It is absolutely amazing, various people have shown here that it is  
possible to design languages within haskell that are almost or just as  
powerful and safe as haskell itself. It is probably even possible to  
create an EDSL within an EDSL within haskell.

Amazing!


Uhm...

... but in that case I really wonder why I should not use Haskell directly  
then.

Because out of the EDSL I can clearly see the "E" and I can see the "L"  
but having slight problems figuring out where the "D" and the "S" come in.

In short, yes it's great that you can create a language within Haskell so  
powerful that it's gone full circle and is general purpose again, but what  
good is that?

The efforts I've seen here where efforts to create a rich and powerful  
syntax, but aren't we supposed to focus on expressing semantics specific  
to a problem in a DSL rather?

I'm not trying to put the efforts and achievements of the people who have  
done such amazing work down, but what exactly is it that I missed?

Günther