[TYPES/announce] SLS 2013: Workshop on Scalable Language Specification - CFP

Mosses P.D. P.D.Mosses at swansea.ac.uk
Fri Feb 22 19:48:50 EST 2013


SLS 2013: Workshop on Scalable Language Specification

* June 25–27, 2013, Cambridge, UK

* Submission deadline: March 25, 2013

* http://research.microsoft.com/en-us/events/sls2013

The focus of this workshop is on formal language specification 
frameworks and how they scale up when applied to larger 
languages. The workshop provides a forum for discussing 
practical and theoretical issues, and aims to promote 
dissemination and collaboration between the developers and 
users of language specification frameworks.

Background
==========
Many hundreds of programming languages have been designed
and implemented, and dozens are currently in widespread use. 
Older languages evolve to incorporate new features, and new
programming languages are continually being developed – 
especially domain-specific languages, designed for use in a 
particular sector.

Each language needs to be precisely specified. A specification
of a major language usually consists of a succinct formal 
grammar, determining its syntax, together with a lengthy 
informal explanation of its intended semantics. Unfortunately,
such informal explanations are inherently imprecise, open to 
misinterpretation, and not amenable to validation. In the few 
cases where the semantics of major languages have been specified 
formally, the required effort appears to have been huge, which 
has discouraged wider adoption of formal semantics.

Objectives
==========
The workshop gathers together leading researchers working on the
development and specification of programming and domain-specific 
languages. One of the objectives is to clarify which features of 
the various specification frameworks affect scaling up to major 
languages. A further objective is to raise awareness of current 
developments of practical relevance, including tool support for 
language specification, prototyping, and verification.

The invited speakers will present features and applications of 
particular specification frameworks. The workshop programme will 
also include presentations of submitted papers, time for informal 
discussions, and a poster display.

Location
========
The workshop will be held at Microsoft Research in Cambridge, UK. 
Accommodation for a limited number of participants has been 
reserved at Downing College.

Invited speakers
================
• Egon Börger           (University of Pisa)
• Mark van den Brand    (Eindhoven University of Technology)
• Kevin Hammond         (University of St Andrews)
• Sir Tony Hoare        (Microsoft Research Cambridge)
• Paul Klint            (CWI, Amsterdam)
• Shriram Krishnamurthi (Brown University)
• José Meseguer         (University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign)
• Grigore Roşu          (University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign)
• Dave Schmidt          (Kansas State University)
• Peter Sewell          (University of Cambridge)

Important dates
===============
* March 25:   Submission deadline
* April 15:   Author notification
* April 29:   Registration deadline
* May 31:     Final versions of papers and posters due
* June 25–27: Workshop

Submissions
===========
Authors who wish to present their research at the workshop are 
invited to submit an extended abstract of up to 4 pages (including 
references). Submissions should be in PDF (A4 format) and will be 
submitted using the EasyChair system by March 25th. A selection 
will be made by the organisers with the assistance of the invited 
speakers, based primarily on interest and relevance to the workshop
objectives.

Proceedings
===========
The accepted extended abstracts (and any full papers based on them) 
will be made available to workshop participants electronically.
The workshop proceedings will *not* be formally published; research 
intended for publication elsewhere (or previously published) can be 
submitted.

Registration
============
Information about registration will be provided closer to the time 
of the workshop.

Posters
=======
Registered participants who wish to display a poster related to the 
workshop objectives should submit the PDF through the EasyChair 
website. 

Organisers
==========
The workshop is organised and sponsored by Microsoft Research 
Cambridge in collaboration with the PLanCompS research project. 
The invited speakers are funded by EPSRC.

Andrew Kennedy 
Programming Principles and Tools Group
Microsoft Research Cambridge
akenn at microsoft.com

Peter Mosses
Department of Computer Science
Swansea University
p.d.mosses at swan.ac.uk

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