List of DSL Patterns

My book on Domain Specific Languages uses a pattern structure to organize the concepts that I use to describe DSLs. Here is a list of the patterns in that book. Each is linked to a page for each pattern. The pages don’t contain very much detail, little more than an indication of the relevant chapter in the book. My main purpose for these is to provide a reference URI for each pattern.

Adaptive Model


Alternative Tokenization

Alter the lexing behavior from within the parser.


Data about program elements, such as classes and methods, which can be processed during compilation or execution.


Formally define the syntax of a programming language.

Class Symbol Table

Use a class and its fields to implement a symbol table in order to support type-aware autocompletion in a statically typed language.


A block of code that can be represented as an object (or first-class data structure) and placed seamlessly into the flow of code by allowing it to reference its lexical scope.

Construction Builder

Incrementally create an immutable object with a builder that stores constructor arguments in fields.

Context Variable

Use a variable to hold context required during a parse.

Decision Table

Represent a combination of conditional statements in a tabular form.

Delimiter-Directed Translation

Translate source text by breaking it up into chunks (usually lines) and then parsing each chunk.

Dependency Network

A list of tasks linked by dependency relationships. To run a task, you invoke its dependencies, running those tasks as prerequisites.

Dynamic Reception

Handle messages without defining them in the receiving class.

Embedded Interpretation

Embed interpreter actions into the grammar, so that executing the parser causes the text to be directly interpreted to produce the response.

Embedded Translation


Embedment Helper

An object that minimizes code in a templating system by providing all needed functions to that templating mechanism.

Expression Builder

An object, or family of objects, that provides a fluent interface over a normal command-query API.

Foreign Code

Embed some foreign code into an external DSL to provide more elaborate behavior than can be specified in the DSL.

Function Sequence

A combination of function calls as a sequence of statements.

Generation Gap

Separate generated code from non-generated code by inheritance.

Literal Extension

Add methods to program literals.

Literal List

Represent language expression with a literal list.

Literal Map

Represent an expression as a literal map.



Method Chaining

Make modifier methods return the host object, so that multiple modifiers can be invoked in a single expression.

Model Ignorant Generation

Hardcode all logic into the generated code so that there's no explicit representation of the Semantic Model .

Model-Aware Generation

Generate code with an explicit simulacrum of the semantic model of the DSL, so that the generated code has generic-specific separation.

Nested Closure

Express statement subelements of a function call by putting them into a closure in an argument.

Nested Function

Compose functions by nesting function calls as arguments of other calls.

Nested Operator Expression

An operator expression that can recursively contain the same form of expression (for example, arithmetic and Boolean expressions).

Newline Separators

Use newlines as statement separators.


Collects errors and other messages to report back to the caller.

Object Scoping

Place the DSL script so that bare references will resolve to a single object.

Parse Tree Manipulation

Capture the parse tree of a code fragment to manipulate it with DSL processing code.

Parser Combinator

Create a top-down parser by a composition of parser objects.

Parser Generator

Build a parser driven by a grammar file as a DSL.

Production Rule System

Organize logic through a set of production rules, each having a condition and an action.

Recursive Descent Parser


Regex Table Lexer

Implement a lexical analyzer using a list of regular expressions.

Semantic Model

The model that's populated by a DSL.

State Machine

Model a system as a set of explicit states with transitions between them.

Symbol Table

A location to store all identifiable objects during a parse to resolve references.

Syntax-Directed Translation

Translate source text by defining a grammar and using that grammar to structure translation.

Templated Generation

Generate output by handwriting an output file and placing template callouts to generate variable portions.

Textual Polishing

Perform simple textual substitutions before more serious processing.

Transformer Generation

Generate code by writing a transformer that navigates the input model and produces output.

Tree Construction

The parser creates and returns a syntax tree representation of the source text that is manipulated later by tree-walking code.