Introduction to “Oslo”

Jeremy BoydDirector – Mindscape

MSDN Regional Directorhttp://turtle.net.nz/blog

Agenda

• What is “Oslo”?• M Language– MSchema– MGraph– MGrammar

• So what does this all mean?

What is “Oslo”?

• “Platform for Model Driven Applications”Capture the intent of the business in terms that are equally understood by humans and computers

aka Next Generation Application Platform

• Language for describing Data and DSL’s• Repository for Models• Tools for building models

MODEL-ASSISTEDModels used to understand or manipulate code Examples: Static Structure, Sequence, …

DRAWINGSModels used to communicate with othersExamples: Dataflow, Use Case, …

MODEL-DRIVENModels executed by runtimes directlyExamples: HTML, CSS, XAML, BPEL, …

What is a Model?

Domain Models

• Complex Domain Designs should be based on a model– If we can decouple from infrastructure– Underpins other patterns– Sits well in an Object Oriented world

“An object model of the domain that incorporates both behaviour and domain”

- Martin Fowler

Why is this happening?

TRANSPARENCYBetter understanding of your application

FLEXIBLITYFaster changes to your application

PRODUCTIVITY“More essence, less ceremony”

Domain Driven• Both a way of thinking, and a set of priorities when

building software• Encourages/requires tighter collaboration between

development team and domain experts• Evolved by continuous learning

“For most software projects the primary focus should be on the domain and the domain logic”

- Eric Evans

What is "Oslo"?

“M”The language for authoring models & DSLs

“Quadrant”The tool for interacting with models & DSLs

RepositoryThe database for storing & sharing models

Key "Oslo" Concepts

MODELS

TEXTUAL DSLs

VISUAL DSLs

RUNTIMES

Domain Specific Languages

• A programming or specification language dedicated to a particular problem domain

• Less comprehensive as a language• More expressive about the domain• At the level of abstraction of the domain• Enhances reuse and maintainability• Can be used by “lay-programmers”

[Your Models]

Base Models

“M” Runtime

REPOSITORYSQL SERVER

[Your Models]

Base Models

“M” Runtime

REPOSITORYSQL SERVER

"Oslo" Architecture

RUNTIMES

[Your Runtime]

“Dublin”

ASP.NET

WF

WCF

SQL/EDM

WindowsOther ISV Runtimes

ADO .NET

XML, Custom Formats, …

“QUADRANT”

Composition

Generic Viewers

Dataflow

EDITORFRAMEWORK

[Your Visual DSL] [Your Textual DSL]

MSchema

MGrammar

MGraph

LANGUAGEFRAMEWORK

[Your Models]

.Net Models

Repository Models

REPOSITORYSQL SERVER

OTHER TOOLS

(VSTS, EXCEL, …)

XML, Custom Formats, …

Agenda

• What is “Oslo”?• M Language– MSchema– MGraph– MGrammar

• So what does this all mean?

What Is “M”?

• “M” is a language for defining domain models and textual domain-specific languages (DSLs)

• M domain models define schema and query over structured data– Values, Constraints, and Views– Natural projection to SQL

• M DSLs define projections from Unicode text to structured data– Rule-based transformation– Grammar-driven text editor integration

Why “M”?

• We want creating and interacting with Oslo content to be simple and natural– Having a box-and-line design experience is an

important enabler– Having a complementary textual experience is

equally important• “M” is how we achieve the latter

3 Basic Concepts

• A value is simply data that conforms to the rules of the M language

• A type describes a set of values• An extent provides dynamic storage of

values

What is “M”?

• MSchema– Describes types– What XSD is to XML for MGraph

• MGraph– Describes instance data (Entities)– Similar to JSON format

• MGrammar– Allows authoring of DSLs over your type

system/data

MSchema

type Address{ Street: Text; City: Text; State: Text; ZipCode: Integer32; } where identity Street;

Demo

MGraph Products { LightSpeed { Id = 1, Name = "LightSpeed", Description = “A Domain Modelling Framework" }, WPFPropertyGrid { Id = 2, Name = "WPF Property Grid", Description = “A Property Grid for WPF" } };

Demo

MGrammar

• Tokens define the “words” of your language• Syntax defines the “sentences” of your

language

1,2e.g. syntax Number = “0”..”9”or h:Number("," v:Number)?

=> Point { X { h }, Y { v }};

language DemoCoder{

syntax Main = Prefix “, “ Suffix;syntax Prefix = “Hello”;syntax Suffix = “World” | “Oslo”;syntax Greetings(pre, suf) = pre suf;syntax Foo = “Foo” => Product { 1 };

};

What “M” Is Not

• An object-oriented language– No polymorphism, virtual dispatch

• A data access technology– M domain models compile down to T-SQL– Tool chain supports course-grained

loading/unloading of schemas and values – not an OLTP solution

• A replacement for T-SQL– Far less expansive feature set

“Quadrant”

• Tool for building and manipulating visual models and DSLs.

• Design workflows, processes and generally manipulate instances of models

• Not currently available except on PDC VPC• Has been shown in relation to WF 4.0 editing

experience

“Quadrant”

Agenda

• What is “Oslo”?• M Language– MSchema– MGraph– MGrammar

• So what does this all mean?

So what does this mean?

• Its all about this whole Model Driven Development idea..

• Nicely complements all the other code gen/automation we are likely to be doing currently

• Brings the business closer to the software

Some words of warning..

What are others doing?

• Microsoft– “Dublin” process server provides a runtime for

hosting workflow models– Windows Workflow 4.0 describes models in M

• ISV’s– Leveraging M and Quadrant for CASE style tools– Mschema/Mgraph as input to code generation /

software factories within existing tool sets

What we are doing?

• Domain Model / ORM Framework

• Using M as inputs for domain modelling• Infer validation constraints etc from schema• Mgraph as input for in test data sets

Quick Demo

Thank you!

• Links:– http://msdn.microsoft.com/oslo– http://www.mindscape.co.nz

• Email: jeremy@mindscape.co.nz• Blog: http://turtle.net.nz/blog