From DCOM interfaces to domain-specific modeling language: A case study on the sequencer

Software development is a demanding process, since it involves different parties to perform a desired task. The same case applies to the development ofmeasurement systems - measurement system producers often provide interfaces to their products, after which the customersć programming engineers use them to build software according to the instructions and requirements of domain experts from the field of data acquisition. Until recently, the customers of the measurement system DEWESoft were building measuring applications, using prefabricated DCOM objects. However, a significant amount of interaction between customersć programming engineers and measurement system producers is necessary to use DCOM objects. Therefore, a domain-specific modeling language has been developed to enable domain experts to program or model their own measurement procedures without interacting with programming engineers. In thispaper, experiences gained during the shift from using the DEWESoft productas a programming library to domain-specific modeling language are provided together with the details of a Sequencer, a domain-specific modeling language for the construction of measurement procedures