>The DSL was configured in YAML. The YAML was often so dense he recommended devs use Jinja to generate the YAML.
Did he then went on to design Ansible ? It falls into same trap
Only way you should be generating data format using language's templating system is
<%= YAML.dump(@config) %>
Also 9 times out of 10 I wished the app designer just used <app language> or <any common embeddable language> (like Lua) instead of making any kind of DSL (whether that's just data file pretending to be code or micro programming language)
Yes.
I think this is like the uncanny valley of development.
It's not no-code UI driven stuff you can put in front of a business user.
It's not real coding, which an engineer wants to do.
It's config jockeying, which devs find boring, and is generally far more limited. So you end up building out more and more complex layers of config to work around the limits, including scripts to generate config.. etc.
Seems like what you really want is modular apps that are easy to extend in the native programming language(s).
Also maybe I'm just stupid, but 9 out of 10 times, a text file or csv/demitted file accomplishes most of what you need for pure config that really belongs in config.
Did he then went on to design Ansible ? It falls into same trap
Only way you should be generating data format using language's templating system is
Also 9 times out of 10 I wished the app designer just used <app language> or <any common embeddable language> (like Lua) instead of making any kind of DSL (whether that's just data file pretending to be code or micro programming language)