Defining Domain Language of Graphical User Interfaces

Domain-specific languages are computer (programming, modeling, specification) languages devoted to solving problems in a specific domain. The least examined DSL development phases are analysis and design. Various formal methodologies exist, however domain analysis is still done informally most of the time. There are also methodologies of deriving DSLs from existing ontologies but the presumption is to have an ontology for the specific domain. We propose a solution of a user interface driven domain analysis and we focus on how it can be incorporated into the DSL design phase. We will present the preliminary results of the DEAL prototype, which can be used to transform GUIs to DSL grammars incorporating concepts from a domain and thus to help in the preliminary phases of the DSL design. 1998 ACM Subject Classification D.2.11 Software Architectures, D.2.12 Interoperability, D.2.13 Reusable Software, H.1.2 User/Machine Systems, H.5.2 User Interfaces (D.2.2, H.1.2, I.3.6)