Creating your own query language as an alternative to your forms
summary
Describes replacing complex UI forms with a custom query language to speed up creating business rules; the team built their own AST using ANTLR 4, integrated editor support in VS Code on the frontend, and used that pairing to provide contextual hints. Includes a working example and conclusions: the solution improved user speed but has trade-offs—added complexity for training and maintenance makes it unsuitable for some user groups.
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chapters (15)
- 0:00Introduction
- 2:06Goals for custom query language
- 4:53Form limitations
- 8:44Need for code editor
- 10:29Query language theory
- 13:23ANTLR for tooling
- 14:26RedQL lexical analysis
- 16:53RedQL grammar design
- 20:05ANTLR build artifacts
- 22:53Monaco Editor integration
- 25:22RedQL results adoption
- 27:09Implementation challenges
- 28:15Q&A
- 37:05Alternatives rationale
- 39:12Forms vs query language
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