What is Envision, and why does Lokad use a domain-specific language?

Envision is the proprietary programming language Lokad built to let Supply Chain Scientists encode forecasting, optimization and decision logic. It targets supply chain experts with basic coding skills, not software engineers. The trade-off is flexibility for those who can use it, and a learning curve for those who cannot. A team without Envision skills depends on Lokad's scientists to maintain and evolve the scripts.