nLab domain specific embedded programming language

Contents

Contents

Idea

A domain specific programming language is one designed for a specialized kind (“domain”) of applications. A domain specific embedded programming language (DSEL) is a domain specific language realized “inside” a general-purpose high level (typed) programming language.

Relation to synthetic mathematics

There is at least some similarity between DSELs and synthetic mathematics, see for instance (Hudak 98, section 3.2). In (Hudak 98, figure 2) this shows aspects of a real-world DSL for “geometric region analysis” embedded in Haskell which under the relation between type theory and category theory/computational trinitarianism one immediately recognizes as a fragment of synthetic geometry.

Examples

Quantum programming

Many existing quantum programming languages are actually domain-specific languages for the description of quantum circuits, and as such many are embedded in ambient type theories.

For instance:

See also Rennela & Staton (2020) for more general discussion.

References

Discussion for embedding in Haskell:

A list of literature is at

Discussion specifically of quantum programming languages for quantum circuits as domain specific embedded languages:

Last revised on August 27, 2023 at 21:00:20. See the history of this page for a list of all contributions to it.