[Haskell-cafe] First Call for Papers: DSL WC

Emir Pasalic pasalic at cs.rice.edu
Wed Jun 18 16:49:54 EDT 2008


IFIP Working Conference on Domain Specific Languages (DSL WC)
July 15-17, 2009, Oxford

CALL FOR PAPERS

Domain-specific languages are emerging as a fundamental component of  
software engineering practice. DSLs are often introduced when new  
domains such as web-scripting or markup come into existence, but it is  
also common to see DSLs being introduced and adopted for traditional  
domains such as parsing and data description. Developing software  
using DSLs has many benefits. DSLs are often designed based on  
existing notations that are already in use by experts in a given  
domain. As such, successful DSLs often reduce or eliminate the effort  
needed to transform the concept or innovation produced by the domain  
expert into an executable artifact or even a deliverable software  
product. DSL implementations can capture and mechanize a significant  
portion of the repetitive and mechanical tasks that a domain expert  
traditionally needed to perform in order to produce an executable.  
DSLs can in many cases capture and make widely available special  
expertise that only top specialists in a given domain might have. By  
capturing expert knowledge and reducing repetitive tasks, DSLs often  
also lead to software that is significantly more portable, more  
reliable and more understandable than it would otherwise be.

DSLs can be viewed as having a dual role to general-purpose languages:  
whereas general purpose languages try to do everything as well as  
possible, DSLs are designed to find a domain where they can solve some  
class of problems -- no matter how small -- in the best possible way.  
Widely known examples of DSLs include Matlab, Verilog, SQL, LINQ,  
JavaScript, PERL, HTML, Open GL, Tcl/Tk, Macromedia Director,  
Mathematica/Maple, AutoLisp/AutoCAD, XSLT, RPM, Make, lex/yacc, LaTeX,  
PostScript, Excel, among many others. But while these tools have been  
widely successful, they still fall short of realizing the full idea  
behind them. The goal of this conference is to explore the extent to  
which incorporating modern principles of language design and software  
engineering can benefit existing and future domain-specific languages.

The ultimate goal of using DSLs is to improve programmer productivity  
and software quality. Often, this is achieved by reducing the cost of  
initial software development as well as maintenance costs. These  
improvements - programs being easier to write and maintain -  
materialize as a result of domain-specific guarantees, analyses,  
testing techniques, verification techniques, and optimizations.

    * Paper Criteria
Papers are sought addressing the research problems, fundamental  
principles, and practical techniques of DSLs, including but not  
limited to:
       - Foundations, including semantics, formal methods, type  
theory, and complexity theory
       - Language design, ranging from concrete syntax to semantic and  
typing issues
       - Software engineering, including domain analysis, software  
design, and round-trip         engineering
       - Software processes, including metrics for software and  
language evaluation
       - Implementation techniques, including parsing, compiling, and  
program generation
       - Program analysis and automated transformation
       - Reverse engineering, re-engineering, design discovery,  
automated refactoring
       - Hardware/software codesign
       - Programming environments, including visual languages,  
debuggers, and testing infrastructure
       - Teaching DSLs and the use of DSLs in teaching
       - Case studies, including engineering, bioinformatics, hardware  
specification languages, parallel computing languages, real-time and  
embedded systems, and networked and distributed domains

Papers will be judged on the depth of their insight and the extent to  
which they translate specific experience into general lessons for  
domain-specific language designers and implementers, and software  
engineers. Papers can range from the practical to the theoretical;  
where appropriate, they should refer to actual languages, tools, and  
techniques, provide pointers to full definitions and implementations,  
and include empirical data on results.

    * Important Dates
       - December 14th, 2008: Abstract submission due. Firm, will not  
have any extensions
       - December 21st, 2008: Paper submission deadline. Firm, will  
not have any extensions
       - February 23rd, 2009: Author notification of decisions
       - March 22nd, 2009: Camera ready manuscripts due

    * Program Committee
       - Jon Bentley, Avayalabs
       - Martin Erwig, Oregon State University
       - Jeff Gray, University of Alabama at Birmingham
       - Robert Grimm, New York University
       - Jim Grundy, Intel Strategic CAD Labs
       - Tom Henzinger, EPFL
       - Sam Kamin, UIUC
       - Dick Kieburtz, Portland State University
       - Ralf Lämmel, University of Koblenz
       - Julia Lawall, University of Copenhagen
       - Benjamin Pierce, University of Pennsylvania
       - Vivek Sarkar, Rice University
       - Jeremy Siek, University of Colorado at Boulder
       - José Nuno Oliveira, University of Minho
       - Doaitse Swierstra, Utrecht University
       - Walid Taha (Chair), Rice University
       - Eelco Visser, Delft University
       - William Waite, University of Colorado at Boulder
       - Stephanie Weirich, University of Pennsylvania

    * Organizers
       - General Chair: Jeremy Gibbons, Oxford University
       - Publicity Chair: Emir Pasalic, LogicBlox


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