An Insight into Creating Domain Specific Languages for Medical Devices
Domain Specific Languages (DSL) are languages designed to address a specific problem. They have been used since the beginning of computing. Well known examples include SQL, HTML, make, regular expressions, UML, VHDL etc. A domain expert who knows the semantics of a specific domain can express the domain requirements using a DSL. DSLs thus help in reducing the gap in communication between the domain expert and the software developer. DSLs are designed to factor in application stability and performance, this is an important consideration when building software that meets regulatory requirements. The Financial, Medical, Telecommunication domains are some of the regulatory domains, where Domain Specific Languages are used.
Medical device manufacturers are leveraging DSLs to derive the benefits of productivity, lower cost of development, lower time to market as they create derivative products. This document presents a view on the considerations for creating DSLs for medical device software development.
The document provides a brief overview on Domain Specific Languages and enumerates a few of the best practices in DSL design for medical device software. These views are derived from the author's experience developing Class 3 Medical device software using DSL. The document targets medical product designers and medical application developers who intend to use Domain Specific Languages (DSLs). It explores the benefits of using DSL for developing software for medical devices. It also presents potential design solutions derived from the author's experience, which can be utilized.
