Domain-specific languages (DSLs) sometimes pop up where you least expect them. This week, for instance, Thoughtworks Studios released an upgrade to its Twist automated testing tool that includes a DSL for building test suites and scenarios in plain English, hiding the complexity of test automation. That's a classical application of DSLs -- those programming or specification languages that are dedicated to a particular problem domain.

 On the heels of a DSL for software testing, I ran across the Systems Biology Markup Language (SBML), a free and open DSL designed to enable the exchange of quantitative models of biochemical networks between different computer software packages, allowing the models to be shared and published in a form other researchers can use in various software environments. Now that's a Doman-specific language!

SBML was first described in 2003 in a paper entitled The Systems Biology Markup Language (SBML): A Medium for Representation and Exchange of Biochemical Network Models by Michael Hucka, a Senior Research Fellow at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech). Since then, the language has continued to make in-roads into the scientific community, thanks to Hucka's dedication and effort. This includes the release of a new SBML Level 3 Core specification.

According to Hucka, "The development of SBML continues at pace thanks to the efforts of both a team of dedicated developers and an international community of volunteers and researchers, who act as SBML users and fellow developers. SBML is a free and open community resource that extends beyond the interests of any single group of researchers."