Hi all and thanks to Federico for starting this community!
My name is Robert (Walter). I’m a freelance software developer and coach based in Köln, Germany.
My main focus during my professional career has been language engineering and tool development. I’ve used different technologies, like EMF, Xtext/Xtend, the Intentional Platform, as well as JetBrains MPS over the last ten+ years to built languages for different domains, including game design, medical engineering, and robotics. I was lucky enough to also be part of some of the development teams behind these technologies, where I was able to learn a lot from very smart people.
I’d like to see language engineering taking in a more prominent role in industry projects, since I firmly believe that DSLs and the right tooling can significantly minimize accidental complexity and allow companies to focus on and explore their business challenges. It’s interesting to me how “low-code” platforms somehow seem to have hit a nerve in that regard and I’m therefore interested to learn more about them.
Another main interest of mine is UX in both language workbenches and the languages we built with them, since I believe it is an important topic that has been neglected both in research as well as industry applications of language engieering. Last but not least, I’m interested to discuss how the process of language design itself can be a very powerful tool for companies to improve their internal communication and their company-wide, common understanding of their problem domain(s), something many people don’t seem to realize.
Anyway, I’m looking forward to learn more about what other topics the community is interested in! If you have any questions, please don’t hestitate to approach me.