It is proposed to set up an annual joint conference, taking place in Europe each spring, and covering a wide range of topics in Software Science. This will be a loose and open confederation of existing and new conferences and other events. The overall aim is to create a popular annual meeting that will act as a strong magnet for academic and industrial researchers working on topics relating to Software Science.
The events that comprise the joint conference will address various aspects of the system development process, including specification, design, implementation, analysis and improvement. The languages, methodologies and tools which support these activities are all well within its scope. Different blends of theory and practice will be represented, with an inclination towards theory with a practical motivation on one hand and soundly-based practice on the other. Many of the issues involved in software design apply to systems in general (including hardware systems), and the emphasis on software is not intended to be exclusive. The specific proposals below illustrate only part of the intended scope.
Each conference will retain its own identity, with a separate programme committee and separate proceedings. Events will run in parallel to a large extent, with a degree of coordination between programme chairpersons required to avoid serious scheduling clashes. An exception will be an "Advanced Seminar", consisting of a wide spectrum of talks by invited speakers, which will take place in plenary sessions. Participants will be able to register for any desired subset of events. Satellite meetings and system demos will be strongly encouraged.
To structure the activity, most of the conferences and other events will fall under one of three main themes (details below):
The names and topics of conferences and other events will be largely the same each year, except that some events may not be annual, and over time new events will be added and old ones will merge or disappear. A steering committee will decide whether or not to admit proposed new events. It seems that increased diversity with an ensuing loss of focus but increased attendance is preferable to narrowness and exclusivity. It is therefore proposed that acceptance of new events should, at least at the outset, be the default.
The name and acronym of the conference are under discussion.
Don Sannella
LFCS
Department of Computer Science
University of Edinburgh
Edinburgh EH9 3JZ
Scotland
Phone: +44 131 650 5184
Fax: +44 131 667 7209
E-mail: dts@dcs.ed.ac.uk
Peter D. Mosses
BRICS
Department of Computer Science
University of Aarhus
Ny Munkegade, Bldg. 540
8000 Aarhus C
Denmark
Phone: +45 8942 3364
Fax: +45 8942 3255
E-mail: pdmosses@daimi.aau.dk
The scope of this conference is syntactic, algebraic, logical and semantic methods for describing, analysing, transforming and verifying programs and systems. The focus is on foundational aspects of such methods rather than their applications. Topics include:
Maurice Nivat
LITP
Université Paris 7
2, Place Jussieu
F-75251 Paris Cedex 05
France
E-mail: Maurice.Nivat@litp.ibp.fr
Andre Arnold
LaBRI
Université Bordeaux 1
351, cours de la Libération
F-33405 Talence Cedex
France
E-mail: andre.arnold@labri.u-bordeaux.fr
Wolfgang Thomas
Institut für Informatik und Praktische Mathematik
Christian-Albrechts-Universität
Olshausenstr. 40
D-24098 Kiel
Germany
E-mail: wt@informatik.uni-kiel.d400.de
Formal methods can play an important role in the software production process, to enhance software quality. They constitute a bridge between theory and practice and thus are on one hand firmly grounded on basic theoretical results in various areas like semantics, logical formalisms, type systems and concurrency, and on the other hand are aimed at producing tools and methods for the various phases of software development.
FASE is intended to provide a forum where different formal approaches to problems of software specification, development and verification are presented, compared and discussed.
Contributions are especially welcome on the following topics:
Egidio Astesiano
DISI
Università di Genova
Viale Benedetto XV,3
I-16132 Genova
Italy
E-mail: astes@disi.unige.it
Marie-Claude Gaudel
LRI, Bâtiment 490
Université de Paris-Sud
F-91405 Orsay Cedex
France
E-mail: Marie-Claude.Gaudel@lri.fr
This theme studies a number of issues related to programming languages and their supporting systems: the design of programming languages; studies of their (formal) properties; techniques, methods and tools for their implementation on different architectures by means of compilation and interpretation; exploitation of programming styles within different programming paradigms; automatic and manual methods for reasoning about programs; the design and invention of systems and tools to assist in exploitation of the languages (e.g. compilers and programming environments).
Initially, there will be two conferences under the theme.
ESOP is an annual conference devoted to fundamental issues in the specification, analysis and implementation of programming languages and systems. It particularly welcomes research that bridges the gap between theory and practice: for example, practical studies based on theoretical developments and theoretical developments with a clearly identified potential for practical application. The emphasis is on the soundness and correctness of the approach.
This includes the following non-exhaustive list of topics:
CC provides a forum for presentation and discussion of recent developments in the area of compiler construction, language implementation and language design. Its scope ranges from compilation methods and tools to implementation techniques for specific requirements of languages and target architectures. It also includes language design and programming environments issues which are related to language translation. There is an emphasis on practical and efficient techniques.
Topics include, but are not restricted to:
Hanne Riis Nielson
Computer Science Department
Aarhus University
DK-8000 Aarhus C
Denmark
E-mail: hrn@daimi.aau.dk
Reinhard Wilhelm
Fachbereich Informatik
Universität des Saarlandes
D-66041 Saarbrüucken
Germany
E-mail: wilhelm@cs.uni-sb.de
Tibor Gyimothy
Research Group on the Theory of Automata
Hungarian Academy of Sciences
Aradi vertanik tere 1.
H-6720 Szeged
Hungary
E-mail: gyimi@inf.u-szeged.hu
Many similar tools and algorithms have been independently developed in various areas of computer science like automata and language theory, verification and synthesis of hardware and software systems, type and proof theory, and logic. TAM is intended to provide a forum for the discussion of the basic principles and application-independent features of such algorithms and their implementation, with the aim to increase the reliability, flexibility and efficiency of current tools by highlighting common problems, heuristics, data structures, and solutions. Meetings will include scientific talks, discussions, and tool demonstrations.
By its interdisciplinary nature TAM overlaps with the other themes of the joint conference, and is intended to attract contributions that stimulate discussions between the various communities. Application specific contributions that do not address an interdisciplinary audience are inappropriate for TAM, and should be submitted to their corresponding themes.
Hot topics include the discussion of appropriate paradigms from the tool perspective, like
Bernhard Steffen
Fakultät für Mathematik und Informatik
Universität Passau
94030 Passau
Germany
Phone: +49 851-509 3090
Fax: +49 851-509 3092
E-mail: steffen@fmi.uni-passau.de
Kim Guldstrand Larsen
Department of Mathematics and Computer Science
Aalborg University Center
9220 Aalborg
Denmark
Phone: +45 98-158 522
Fax: +45 98-158 129
E-mail: kgl@iesd.auc.dk