A Case Study in DSL Development: An Experiment with Python and Scala
Klaus Havelund, Michel Ingham, David Wagner

This paper describes an experiment performed with developing a Domain Specific Language (DSL) for monitoring and control of the launch platform for future Constellation rockets at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida, USA. The Constellation project has been conceived as NASA's replacement of the current aging space shuttle program, with the extended objective of sending humans back to the moon, and subsequently to Mars. The DSL effort was specifically performed  for the NASA  Constellation Launch Control System (LCS) project.  The main experiment was performed using simulators of the existing space shuttle launch platform, and included designing and implementing a prototype in the Python programming language, chosen for its succinct notation. A later study was  carried out where part of the DSL was implemented in Scala, and compared to the Python implementation from a linguistic DSL elegance point of view.