[TYPES/announce] Final Call for Participation: Workshop on Scalable Language Specification, June 25-27, Cambridge, UK

[Andrew Kennedy]

FINAL CALL FOR PARTICIPATION
SLS 2013: Workshop on Scalable Language Specification

* June 25-27, 2013, Cambridge, UK

* Registration deadline: May 27, 2013
* (EXTENDED) Deadline for accommodation at Downing College: May 20, 2013
* Web page: 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.
Note that the deadline for applying for accommodation at Downing College is *May 20th 2013*.

Invited speakers
================
* Egon Börger           (University of Pisa)
The ASM approach for modular design and verification of programming features

* Mark van den Brand    (Eindhoven University of Technology)
A DSL for describing type checkers for DSLs

* Kevin Hammond         (University of St Andrews)
Compositional resource analysis in Hume using automatic amortisation

* Sir Tony Hoare        (Microsoft Research Cambridge)
Laws of concurrent design

* Paul Klint            (CWI, Amsterdam)
How to Test a Meta-Program?

* Shriram Krishnamurthi (Brown University)
Programming language semantics as Natural Science

* José Meseguer         (University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign)
Making Real-Time Language Definitions Scalable

* Grigore Rosu          (University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign)
Specify and verify your Language using K

* Dave Schmidt          (Kansas State University)
Principles and applications of abstract-interpretation-based static analysis

* Peter Sewell          (University of Cambridge)
Programming language and multiprocessor semantics in Ott, Lem, and Ln

Programme and Registration
============
See the workshop web page at http://research.microsoft.com/en-us/events/sls2013.
To register, please email Helen Guy-Mas (a-heleng at microsoft.com) to request a registration form.

Posters
=======
Registered participants who wish to display a poster related to the workshop objectives should submit a PDF. Details can be found on the workshop 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.

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

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


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