JetBrains MPS Blog

Are you coming to Code Generation 2013? The JetBrains MPS and YouTrack teams are sending a four member crew this year. We’ll present MPS 3.0, teach the basics of projectional editing and practice language extension during the MPS hands-on session on Wednesday April 10th. On Thursday 11th during the Have Your Language Built While You Wait session, we’ll be available to help you start prototyping your own language. You’ll also be able to grab us for a chat any time at the JetBrains booth down in the lobby and discuss whatever comes to mind related to DSLs, MPS and life. See you there!

Develop with pleasure!
-JetBrains MPS Team

Most of the readers of this blog can ride MPS already. Newcomers, however, need guidance and help to overcome the initial barrier so that they could start using the tool and benefit from it. We’re constantly trying to come up with ways that would improve the initial experience and just recently we published a short step-by-step tutorial - Fast Track to MPS - 9 steps to mastery. The tutorial aims at newbies and guides them to walk steadily from simple concepts towards the more involved ones so that they gradually build the necessary knowledge.

If you know of anyone, who might be willing to give MPS a try, please consider helping them start by pointing them to the new tutorial.

Develop with pleasure!
-JetBrains MPS Team

Here’s a tip - Markus Voelter (http://www.voelter.de/) has just published his new book, which is highly relevant to our field:

DSL Engineering
Designing, Implementing and Using Domain Specific Languages

The book provides a thorough read on the subject, introducing the reader into the core aspects of DSL design and implementation. It explains the fundamental principles of using DSLs as part of modern development cycle and showcases JetBrains MPS as one of the tools that aim to make DSL development approachable.

This book provides a thorough introduction to DSLs and lends inspiration to readers of where and how to use DSLs. It relies on today’s state-of-the-art language workbenches: JetBrains MPS, Xtext and Spoofax. Thus on top of gaining an insight into each of these tools individually you will get a direct side-by-side comparison of the tools, their capabilities and targets.

Develop with pleasure!
-JetBrains MPS Team

Here’s the news that you have been waiting for - 2.5.4 is out. (If you were actually waiting for news about 3.0, please read on). Grab 2.5.4 while it’s fresh. The release notes will give you full details on what’s changed.

Except for the usual doze of bug-fixes, 2.5.4 comes with one major new feature that is definitely worth your attention:

• the ability for build scripts to rebuild an MPS project from scratch.

Without the need to regenerate in the MPS workbench or to keep your generated code in VCS, you just invoke ant generate on the command line and your whole MPS project gets regenerated, compiled and packaged. What a relieve!

There’s a catch, though. In order for the rebuild to be possible, your project must not contain bootstrapping dependencies, e.g. a module must not use a language, which requires that same module for generation. Chasing such dependency violations and hunting them down can be a challenge without proper tools. To give you a hand, the Dependency Analyzer has been enhanced and we documented the required steps on a dedicated how-to page that will give you all relevant information and guide you through the process.

As a bonus, once you remove all bootstrapping dependencies from your projects, you’ll be in a good position to migrate them automatically to MPS 3.0 eventually.

Speaking of MPS 3.0 …

Yeah, we’ve slipped behind schedule with 3.0. The 3.0 codebase has undergone a major facelift. We’ve refactored the core API so that MPS will provide stable and robust set of well documented APIs to allow access to the models directly from your code. It will also help us evolve MPS faster. The price we pay now will certainly pay off in the near future.

The features mentioned in the (updated) roadmap for 3.0 are gradually being added and we are coming close to a point when the 3.0 EAP will open. Just give us a few more weeks, please.
You’ll soon be able to put your hands on

• Multiple editors per concept
• Tight IntelliJ IDEA integration
• Smoother BaseLanguage editor

and many other improvements.

Develop with pleasure!
-JetBrains MPS Team

The two presentations given by Alexander Shatalin and Václav Pech at CodeGeneration2012 have just been published by InfoQ. You can check them out:

• Developing Advanced IDE Functionality for Your DSLs - MPS principles explained
• Building Your Own Java (Part 1 and Part 2) - a hands-on lab to dip your toes into MPS

Develop with pleasure!
-JetBrains MPS Team

We have a Milestone 2 build of MPS 2.5 ready for you to test and experiment with. It received a massive amount of bug-fixing and polishing and should give you very realistic experience of what is coming in 2.5. Get it fresh from from 2.5 EAP download page.

If you want to refresh your memory about what new functionality 2.5 provides, a list of the new features is to be found here.

Enjoy the ride!

Develop with pleasure!
-JetBrains MPS Team

Here’s the news:
Listening to your requests we wrote down a plan for future MPS releases. It took us a while to clarify and prioritize the major important tasks ahead and I think the outcome is pretty promising.
Why not check it out right away at
http://confluence.jetbrains.net/display/MPS/MPS+public+roadmap

We’re going to stick to the roadmap for our further development. The map is not set in stone, however, so feel free to comment, discuss and vote for issues in the tracker to help us steer the projects towards your needs.

Develop with pleasure!
-JetBrains MPS Team

It seems we rushed 2.0.5 a bit and a nasty bug sneaked in accidentaly. This one really needed to be eliminated urgently. Please, find the fixed 2.0.6 release ready for download. Sorry for the inconvenience.

If you want to see the offending bug, check out the release notes.

Develop with pleasure!
-JetBrains MPS Team

Another round of polishing and fine-tuning has brought us the MPS 2.0.3 release, so we can start the new year with a sharp and shiny tool. Your copy of MPS 2.0.3 is waiting for you at the usual download place just like the release notes containing the details.

One important note to add - we’ve prepared a whole set of new educational screen-casts on MPS and language design, both introductory and expert level. They’ve been published through the MPS channel of JetBrains TV. Check them out!

Develop with pleasure!
-JetBrains MPS Team

If you are coming to Devoxx this year, we have some good news for you - two members of the MPS and YouTrack teams, Maxim Mazin and Václav Pech, will be there to answer your questions. Come and join us at the JetBrains booth or, even better, attend the “Are you talking my language?” session on Thursday 17th November and hear an introduction into MPS first hand.

See you there!

Develop with pleasure!
-JetBrains MPS Team