Isn't a DSL another name for an app which solves a particular problem?

Question

Hi,

I am learning boo (got the ebook), but one question I have is what exactly is a DSL? Better question, if a DSL is geared towards a specific problem, then isn't it just another name for really an application space (e.g. Word Processing, DBMS, maths processing software), all solve their own problems.

I ask this because recently a couple of members in a dev team at work wrote an API to test a winforms app and it was deemed a "DSL".

Thanks

Answer 1

When in doubt, wiki: Domain-specific language

Generally it's not an application but a programming language or a framework which extends a language to aid in solving a particular problem or set of problems. SQL (the query language) is an example of a DSL; the DBMS itself, however, is not a DSL.