DLite is an implementation of SOFT, which stands for SINTEF Open Framework and Tools and is a set of concepts for how to achieve semantic interoperability as well as implementations and corresponding tooling.

The development of SOFT was motivated by many years of experience with developing scientific software, where it was observed that a lot of efforts went into developing parts that had little to do with the domain. A significant part of the development process was spent on different software engineering tasks, such as code design, the handling of I/O, correct memory handling of the program state and writing import and export filters in order to use data from different sources. In addition comes the code maintenance with support of legacy formats and the introduction of new features and changes to internal data state in the scientific software. With SOFT it is possible to utilize reusable software components that handle all this, or develop new reusable software components that can be used by others in the same framework. At the core of SOFT are the SOFT data models, which by design provide a simple but powerful way to represent scientific data.

Originally DLite started as a simplified pure C implementation of SOFT based on SOFT5, but has with time developed into a robust framework with a large set of [features]. There is also SOFT7, a new version of SOFT written in pure Python where new features are tested out.