2004 seems really late for the inception (or possibly formalisation) of Domain Specific Language, I assume that you're talking specifically about embedded (also

2004 seems really late for the inception (or possibly formalisation) of Domain Specific Language, I assume that you're talking specifically about embedded (also called internal) DSLs, otherwise SQL at least is from 1986. As an earlier example of an Embedded DSL, the book PAIP[1] included prolog embedded in common lisp in 1992. It could be argued that the loop macro in Common Lisp is a DSL for describing iteration. If not loop, then certainly regular expressions are a common EDSL for describing a regular language, and performing operations with those languages against strings? I found this snippet from Computers in Crisis [2] which seems to describe domain-specific languages in familiar terms from 1975 Most domain-specific programming languages can be categorized in one of two ways; either as a "sugared" general ... of programming, in fact the style of problem solving, embedded in and supported by that language remains unchanged. [1] http://www.norvig.com/paip/README.html http://www.norvig.com/paip/README.html [2] http://books.google.co.nz/books?id=QndQAAAAMAAJ&q=%22Embedded+Domain+Specific+Language%22&dq=%22Embedded+Domain+Specific+Language%22&hl=en&sa=X&ei=fq3gUfOmG8e_kQX59YG4AQ&ved=0CDkQ6AEwAg http://books.google.co.nz/books?id=QndQAAAAMAAJ&q=%22Embedde...