Its called a DSL because it is extremely declarative, and because while it is obviously a subset of ruby syntax, it does not have to look like common ruby at all.

I take your point though, I do get that feeling sometimes. There is a lot of showing off by ruby API developers.

I think there comes a time in every ruby hackers life when they get the urge to write an API that makes use of every single metaprogramming/reflection/self-modification feature in the language, because it looks like so much fun. We spend our work days writing rails with all its fancypants DSL-like bits, and we think "I want to do one of them!"

Mine is a DSL for defining regular expressions in natural language, and my god does it abuse metaprogramming. All the methods are defined at runtime by iterating over datastructures that list the regex spec. instance_eval(&block) all over the place. It is fucking brilliant. And not finished. Obviously.