YOOT

It seems that Oslo is generating some buzz lately, especially since one of the Oslo PMs tried clarifying the situation … still nobody seem to know what it actually is. So, is it another vaporware from Microsoft or is it a revolutionary way of developing software ? does it do coffee as well ?

Well, I obviously don’t pretend having the final answer but I wanted to give my 2 cents on the subject:

• I don’t think it’s just about database development … I have NHibernate, thank you.
• I don’t think either that it’s just about developing textual DSLs … there is Gold, ANTLRWorks, Boo, F# …
• I don’t think that’s it’s just a MDD modeling tool (Middle-Out approach with model transformations and full traceability between models !) … we have tons of them already, and very good ones.
• It might be viewed as a Language / Domain Workbench … (here, here, here & there).
• It might also be at some point a host for executable semantic models.

My hope is that it’s all of that, unified in a single consistent vision and bundled in an integrated suite of tools & technologies. This might well change the way we think about and develop, or should I say model, software.

Maybe I am completely wrong. But if there’s a good mix of those technologies in it, I am very excited about Oslo, even though it is still in its (very) early stages and the future is still somewhat unclear.

And you, what is your opinion about what Oslo is / should be ?

An interesting presentation that I also encourage you to watch (after those ones) is about Creating DSLs in Microsoft Oslo, by Amanda Laucher, if you have any interest in Domain Modeling, Domain-Specific Languages & Semantic Models.