On the Difficulty of Drawing the Line.

The paper considers domain-specific tool support as a means to turn descriptive into prescriptive models, and to blur the difference between models and programs, and even between developers and users. Conceptual underlying key is to view the system development as a decision process which increasingly constraints the range of possible system implementations and Domain-Specific Languages (DSLs) as a means to freeze taken decisions on the way towards a concrete realization. This way naturally comprises both programming and modeling aspects. In fact, considering all interactions that influence the behaviour of the system as development turns GUIs into DSLs and makes it even hardly possible to draw the line between developers and users. We will illustrate this viewpoint in the light of the development of the Equinocs system, Springer’s new editorial service.