Beginner's Guide to MPS: Create Custom Domain-Specific Languages

Creating traditional programming languages often requires complex parsing, lexing, and abstract syntax tree configuration. The Meta Programming System (MPS) simplifies this process through projectional editing, allowing you to build tailored domain-specific languages (DSLs) efficiently. This course guides you through the foundational concepts of language-oriented programming. You will progress from understanding the basic anatomy of an MPS language to defining structure, editor projections, and generator rules that translate your custom code into clean, executable target code. What you'll learn: - Understand the core concepts of projectional editing and language-oriented programming. - Define the structure of your custom language using concepts, properties, and references. - Design intuitive editor projections to make your language readable and easy to edit. - Configure generator templates to translate your DSL into standard programming languages. - Implement basic constraints and type system rules to validate user input. - Apply modern version control practices to manage your MPS project files. The course starts with essential terminology and the environment setup, then moves systematically through structure, editor, and generator aspects. You will learn by reading clear explanations and interacting with practical, text-based project examples. This course is designed for software developers, system architects, and technical analysts who are completely new to MPS and want to explore language engineering. No prior language-design experience is required. Start reading today to unlock the power of language-oriented programming.