I've been involved in DSLs and Software Factories for about six months now, before that I dabbled in building DSLs trying to see how I could use them in enhancing the development experience for both developers and non-developers.
One of the big problems I came across is the lack of a single reference that provided the necessary background information required to assemble a Software Factory.
Granted the MSDN provides all of the documentation on-line and you have the various community sites, but there is nothing out there that ties it all together so you can gain the skills needed to easily assemble a Software Factory using DSLs, GAT and GAX.
So I'm in the process of putting together a series of articles that I think provides a pretty good overview of the information you need to understand before you start assembling a Software Factory using the current toolset.
As the tooling changes in the near future so will the required knowledge base, but for people wanting to take one of the existing Microsoft Patterns & Practices Software Factories and tailor it for their own uses or for those who need to assemble a Software Factory on their own, I think the topics I've selected can help get you off on the right foot.
So far the topics I'm working on are as follows:
- Guidance - What is it?
- Building DSLs
- EnvDTE - Microsoft Visual Studio Automation Primer
-
Visual Studio Templates
- T4 Templates
- Actions
- Type Convertors
- Value Providers
- Menus
- Custom Wizard Pages
- Recipes
I look forward to any feedback or additional topics you might feel are needed.