CfP: 1st International Conference on Software Language Engineering (SLE 2008, Sept, Toulouse)

  Call for Papers


  1st International Conference on Software Language Engineering (SLE 2008)


  http://planet-sl.org/sle2008/


  Co-located with the
  11th IEEE/ACM International Conference on Model-Driven Engineering
Languages
  and Systems (MODELS 2008)


  Toulouse, France, September 29-30, 2008


***************************************************************************


Conference proceedings will be published by Springer in the LNCS
series.


The 1st International Conference on Software Language Engineering
(SLE) is devoted to topics related to artificial languages in software
engineering. SLE is an international research forum that aims to bring
together researchers and practitioners from both industry and academia
to expand the frontiers of software language
engineering. Historically, SLE emerged from two established workshop
series: LDTA, Language Descriptions, Tools, and Applications, which
has been a satellite event at ETAPS for the last 8 years, and ATEM
which has been co-located with MODELS and WCRE for the last 5
years. These, as well as several other conferences and workshops, have
investigated various aspects of language design, implementation, and
evolution but from different perspectives. SLE's foremost mission is
to encourage and organize communication between communities that have
traditionally looked at software languages from different, more
specialized, and yet complementary perspectives. SLE emphasizes the
fundamental notion of languages as opposed to any realization in
specific "technical spaces".


Scope


The term "software language" comprises all sorts of artificial
languages used in software development including general purpose
programming languages, domain- specific languages, modeling and
meta-modeling languages, data models, and ontologies. We use this term
in its broadest sense. Thus, for example, modeling languages include
UML and UML-based languages, synchronous languages used in safety
critical applications, business process modeling languages, and web
application modeling languages, to name a few. Perhaps less obviously,
the term "software language" also comprises APIs and collections of
design patterns that are indeed implicitly defined languages.


Software language engineering is the application of a systematic,
disciplined, quantifiable approach to the development, use, and
maintenance of these languages. Thus, the SLE conference is concerned
with all phases of the lifecycle of software languages; these include
the design, implementation, documentation, testing, deployment,
evolution, recovery, and retirement of languages. Of special interest
are tools, techniques, methods and formalisms that support these
activities. In particular, tools are often based on or even
automatically generated from a formal description of the language.
Hence, of special interest is the treatment of language descriptions
as software artifacts, akin to programs - while paying attention to
the special status of language descriptions, subject to tailored
engineering principles and methods for modularization, refactoring,
refinement, composition, versioning, co- evolution, and analysis.


Topics of interest


We solicit high-quality contributions in the area of SLE ranging from
theoretical and conceptual contributions to tools, techniques and
frameworks that support the aforementioned lifecycle activities. Some
examples of tools, techniques, applications, and problems are listed
below in order to clarify the types of contributions sought by SLE.


      * Formalisms used in designing and specifying languages and tools
that
          analyze such language descriptions: For example, of interest are
          formalisms such as grammars, schemas, ontologies, and meta-
models;
          innovative tools that detect inconsistencies in a meta-model or
analyze
          grammars in building a parser; and formal logics and proof
assistants that
          verify properties of language specifications.
      * Language implementation techniques: This includes advances in
traditional
          compiler generator tools such as parser/scanner generators,
attribute
          grammar systems, term-rewriting systems, functional-programming-
based
          combinator libraries, among many others; also of interest are
meta-model-based
          and ontology tools such as constraint, rule, view,
transformation, and query
          formalisms and engines.
      * Program and model transformation tools: Examples include tools
that
          support program refinement and refactoring, model-based
development,
          aspect weaving, model extraction, meta-modeling, model
transformations,
          round-trip engineering, and runtime system transformation.
      * Composition, integration and mapping tools for managing different
aspects
          of software languages or different manifestations of a given
language: For
          example, SLE is interested in tools for mapping between the
concrete and
          abstract syntax of a language, for managing textual and graphical
concrete
          syntax for the same or closely related languages; also, mapping
          descriptions and tools for XML/object/relational mappings.
      * Language evolution: Included are extensible languages and type
systems and
          their supporting tools, as well as language conversion tools.
APIs, when
          considered as languages, are subject to evolution and tools and
techniques
          that assist developers in using a new version of an API or a
competing
          implementation in a program are also of interest.
      * Requirement engineering approaches to elicitation, specification,
and
          verification of requirements for software languages: For example,
of
          interest are ontology-driven approaches for synchronizing
different
          requirements engineering techniques used in domain-specific
languages and
          logic-based and simulation formalisms for verification of
language
          requirements.
      * Language development frameworks, methodologies, techniques, best
          practices, and tools for the broader language lifecycle covering
phases
          such as analysis, testing, and documentation. For examples,
frameworks for
          advanced type or error checking systems, constraint mechanisms,
tools for
          metrics measurement and language usage analysis, documentation
generators,
          visualization backends, knowledge and process management
approaches, as
          well as IDE support for many of these activities are of interest.
      * Design challenges in SLE: Example challenges include finding a
balance
          between specificity and generality in designing domain-specific
languages,
          between strong static typing and weaker yet more flexible type
systems, or
          between deep and shallow embedding approaches, as, for example,
in the
          context of adding type-safe XML and database programming support
to
          general-purpose programming languages.
      * Applications of languages including innovative domain-specific
languages
          or "little" languages: Examples include policy languages for
security or
          service oriented architectures, web-engineering with schema-based
          generators or ontology-based annotations. Of specific interest
are the
          engineering aspects of domain-specific language support in all
these
          cases.


Do note that this list is not exclusive and many examples of tools,
techniques, approaches have not been listed. The program committee
chairs encourage potential contributors to contact them with questions
about the scope and topics of interest to SLE.


Paper Submission


We solicit the following types of papers:


      * Research papers. These should report a substantial research
contribution
          to SLE and/or successful application of SLE techniques. Full
paper
          submissions must not exceed 20 pages.
      * Short papers. These may describe interesting or thought-provoking
concepts
          that are not yet fully developed or evaluated, make an initial
          contribution to challenging research issues in SLE, or discuss
and analyze
          controversial issues in the field. These papers must not exceed
10 pages.
      * Tool demonstration papers. Because of SLE's ample interest in
tools, we
          seek papers that present software tools related to the field of
SLE. These
          papers will accompany a tool demonstration to be given at the
conference.
          These papers must not exceed 10 pages. The selection criteria
include the
          originality of the tool, its innovative aspects, the relevance of
the tool
          to the SLE, and the maturity of the tool. Submissions may also
include an
          appendix (that will not be published) containing additional
screen-shots
          of the proposed demonstration.
      * Panel proposals. Panels that discuss controversial and
challenging issues
          in the area of SLE, perhaps based on looking at SLE related
problems from
          the different perspectives of different communities are also
sought. The
          panels should have at least three panelists and a moderator, and
the
          proposal must not exceed three pages. One panel is planned for
the end of
          each of the two days of the conference program. The panel
moderators' will
          be invited to contribute a summary of the panel discussion
compiling
          different positions presented on the panel to the final
proceedings.


Submitted articles must not have been previously published or
currently be submitted for publication elsewhere. All submitted papers
will be closely reviewed by at least three members of the program
committee. All accepted papers will be made available at the
conference in the pre-proceedings and published in the
post-proceedings of the conference, which will appear in Springer's
Lecture Notes in Computer Science series. Authors will have the
opportunity to revise their accepted paper for the pre and
post-proceedings. All papers must be formatted by following Springer's
LNCS style and will be submitted using EasyChair:
http://www.easychair.org/conferences/?conf=sle2008. Further details
regarding submission can be found on the SLE web page:
http://planet-sl.org/sle2008/.


Special Issue


There are negotiations underway to compile a special issue in an
appropriate journal based on extended version of selected SLE 2008
papers.


Registration


All SLE 2008 attendees register via the MODELS 2008 registration site.


That is, registration to SLE 2008 is handled in the same way as other
MODELS 2008 satellite events.


Important Dates


      * Paper submission: July 14, 2008
      * Author notification: August 25, 2008
      * Paper submission for pre-proceedings: September 8, 2008
      * Conference: September 29 - 30, 2008
      * Camera-ready paper submission for post-proceedings: November 1,
2008
      * Post-proceedings mailed to authors (approx.): February 1, 2009


Organization


Steering Committee


      * M.G.J. (Mark) van den Brand, Technische Universiteit Eindhoven,
The
          Netherlands
      * James Cordy, Queen's University, Canada
      * Jean-Marie Favre, University of Grenoble, France
      * Dragan Gasevic, Athabasca University, Canada
      * Gvrel Hedin, Lund University, Sweden
      * Ralf Ldmmel, Universitdt Koblenz-Landau, Germany
      * Eric Van Wyk, University of Minnesota, USA
      * Andreas Winter, Johannes Gutenberg-Universitdt Mainz, Germany


General Chair


      * Ralf Ldmmel, Universitdt Koblenz-Landau, Germany


Program Co-Chairs


      * Dragan Gasevic, Athabasca University, Canada
      * Eric Van Wyk, University of Minnesota, USA


Organization Committee


      * Jean-Marie Favre, University of Grenoble, France
      * Jean-Sebastien Sottet, University of Grenoble, France (Web Site
Chair)
      * Andreas Winter, Johannes Gutenberg-Universitdt Mainz, Germany
      * Steffen Zschaler, Technische Universitdt Dresden, Germany
(Publicity
          Chair)


Program Committee


To be announced

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