Hi,
if you are looking for a visual Domain Specific Language for the CSLA.NET Framework, please visit www.cslafactory.net.
In terms of feedback for clsafactory.
I may have this wrong (as i have thus far only looked at the video) but the
biggest problem that i see is that the visual design doesn't go to the class
itself to build the map, but it generates the code from the map. Hence the map
and the code aren't synchronised. What i would expect is that the visual
designer works like the class designer, where you make a change in the code its
reflected in the designer and vice versa.
Cheers
Anthony
Hi,
the CslaFactory is a forward only Modeling approach. I think you are looking for a modeling approach known as Round-tripping. Round-tripping aims to automate the work of keeping the same information up-to-date in two places, models and code. Round-tripping works only when the formats a very similar ( at same abstraction layer) and there is no loss of information between the translations. In software development, this is true in relatively few areas and typically only for the structural specifications. For instance, a model of a schema can be created from a database and a database schema can be generated from a model. Round-tripping with program code is more problematic since modeling languages don't cover the details op programming languages and vice versa. Usually the class skeleton can be shonw ind models but the rest - behavior ( ValidationRules, AuthorisationRules) - are note coverd in the round-trip process and the stay in code. This is only a partial link. This kind of alignment between code and models is often pure overhead. Having a rectangle symbol to illustrate a class in a diagram and then an skeleted equivalent textual representation in a programming language hardly adds any value. There is no raise in the level of abstraction and no information hiding, just an extra reprensentation duplicating the same information.
In DSL developement, we use models as the primary artifacts in the deveopment process: we have source models instead of source code.Truly DSL development uses automated transformations in a manner similiar to the way a pure coding approach uses compilers.
If you are interessed in different modeling approaches including their pros and cons, please read the book "Domian Specifing Modeling" by Steven Kelly.
PS: I think this is not the right forum for this discussions. If you want a deeper discussion please create a forum on www.cslafactory.net
Regards
Josef
Yeah Josef. Clsafactory looks very promising but you can’t count on it. The beta 1 version has been delayed for 3 months now and still doesn’t have a sign of releasing, think of what will happen to the release version.
There will be a new player of Visual Designer for CSLA.net ,named Sculpture. The coming release will work for CSLA as well. check it out at http://www.codeplex.com/Sculpture
lukky:
I'd like to share my thoughts about this subject.
2) Sculpture looks promising. I've tried it and so far it has produced some results, but my beef with it is that it doesn't allow me to specify custom names for my BO properties. As of 1.0 beta 2, I'm stuck with using the same name as the DB columns. Also, it doesn't allow for the data to be "distributed" across tables, as EF designer does.
Guys, I just posted another comment underr the Contrib forum (http://forums.lhotka.net/forums/thread/13737.aspx). And after reading this post I feel better because that other post nobody answered since over a year and I thought nobody was looking into this.
Anyways, I'm pretty new about all this, but I think is a great thing. I listen to this show in .NET Rocks with Kevin McNeish (http://www.dotnetrocks.com/default.aspx?showNum=329) . I don't see in this post anybody commenting on this DSL tool created by Microsoft that ships with the VS2005 / VS2008 SDK. So my first questions, are you guys aware it? If so, and based on what I'm hearing (because I didn't donwloaded or use it yet!), shouldn't we just create a DSL for CSLA using this tool? This guy was talking about been able to use it bottom-up (given a database build the model) or bottom-down (just desing your model and generate the code), or course is up to you how to create it, because this is a DSL to create DSL's!
Any ways, it will be really cool specially for bottom-down, you start modeling your project with a visual designer and with entities that represent the different CSLA objects and a bunch of properties will drive the way the code is generated.
Let me know what you think, I'll also take a look at the other projects you guys are mentioning here, its nice to know there are multiple options out there, that's the nice thing about working with an application framework that a lot of people uses.
Regards
Mind me asking, what is wrong with the EF modeling tool in VS2008? We are planning to use the EDMX generated by the tool to generate CSLA code in the next release of Code Complete.
Philip
Mind me asking, what is wrong with the EF modeling tool in VS2008? We are planning to use the EDMX generated by the tool to generate CSLA code in the next release of Code Complete.
Philip
![Big Smile [:D]](/emoticons/emotion-2.gif)
The Beta 2 version of Code Complete is out with support for thrid party controls (DevExpress, Janus and Infragisitics) and Ajax for generating the UIs.
Visit the Code Complete site at http://www.eurowisesoft.com
Philip
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