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special-purpose language

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special-purpose language

[′spesh·əl ¦pər·pəs ′laŋ·gwij]
(computer science)
A programming language designed to solve a particular type of problem.
McGraw-Hill Dictionary of Scientific & Technical Terms, 6E, Copyright © 2003 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.

special-purpose language

Also called a "domain-specific language," a special-purpose language is a programming language designed to solve a finite class of problems. For example, LISP and Prolog were designed for AI. Tex was created for typesetting. SQL manipulates databases. Mathematica is used for computations. COGO solves civil engineering problems, and APT directs machine tools. Contrast with general-purpose language.
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References in periodicals archive
The number of specifications can be reduced, and special-purpose languages can be used to simplify those specifications.
To overcome this barrier Eli embodies a decomposition of the total problem into a set of well-defined subproblems, provides libraries and special-purpose languages for solving those subproblems, and automatically combines the solutions into a working compiler.
One of thse special-purpose languages, OIL, is used to solve the operator identification problem common to compiler construction.
Eli: a complete, flexible compiler construction system
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