title: Pros/cons of different language workbench tools such as Xtext and MPS?
body: <p>Does anyone have experience working with language workbench tools such as Xtext, Spoofax, and JetBrains' MPS?  I'm looking to try one out and am having a hard time finding a good comparison of the different tools.  What are the pros and cons of each?</p>
  
  <p>I'm looking to build DSLs that generate python code, so I'm especially interested to hear from people who've used one of these tools with python (all three seem pretty Java-focused... why is that?).  The DLSs are primarily for my own use, so I care less about building a really pretty IDE than I do about it being KISS to define the syntax and write the code generator. The ability to type-check / do static analysis of the DLSs would be pretty cool too.</p>
  
  <p>I'm a little afraid of getting far down a path, hitting a wall, and realizing that all my code is in a format that can't be ported to anything else -- is that a risk with these tools?  MPS in particular seems a little scary since as I understand it you don't really generate text-based syntaxes but rather build specialized editors for ASTs.</p>