Langium: Design your own language in Node.js and VS Code

What if one grammar file could generate a parser, AST, and full IDE support for your new language? Discover how with the Langium framework.

#1about 2 minutes

Understanding domain-specific languages and their use cases

Domain-specific languages (DSLs) are specialized languages like SQL or MATLAB that solve problems within a particular domain.

#2about 3 minutes

The business benefits of creating a custom DSL

Creating a DSL can reduce maintenance costs by decoupling domain experts from developers and enables automation through code generation.

#3about 2 minutes

Key principles for designing an effective DSL

When designing a language, choose a paradigm and abstraction level, but most importantly, be specific to the domain problem instead of replicating a general-purpose language.

#4about 3 minutes

Introducing the Langium framework for language engineering

Langium is a TypeScript-based framework that simplifies creating languages by generating parsers, scoping, and other services directly from a grammar definition.

#5about 5 minutes

Langium's design goals and built-in cross-reference support

Langium is designed to be lean, customizable, and easy to start with, providing powerful out-of-the-box features like cross-references via special grammar syntax.

#6about 2 minutes

Managing workspaces and integrating with IDEs via LSP

Langium supports multi-file workspaces and provides built-in Language Server Protocol (LSP) support for features like diagnostics and code actions in any compatible editor.

#7about 1 minute

Deploying Langium-based languages on the web

Languages built with Langium can be deployed on the web using either a client-server architecture or a browser-only model for lightweight playgrounds.

#8about 7 minutes

Demo: Building the MiniLogo drawing language with Langium

This demonstration shows how to define a grammar for a simple drawing language, which automatically provides IDE features and enables code generation to produce a visual output.

#9about 1 minute

How to get started with the Langium framework

You can start building your own language by using the Yeoman generator to set up a local project or by experimenting with the online Langium playground.