CALL FOR PAPERS: 15th International Conference on Generative Programming: Concepts & Experiences (GPCE 2016)

CALL FOR PAPERS

15th International Conference on Generative Programming: Concepts & Experiences (GPCE 2016)

October 31-November 1, 2016 | Amsterdam, The Netherlands

(collocated with SPLASH 2016)

http://www.gpce.org | http://www.facebook.com/GPCEConference | http://twitter.com/GPCECONF

IMPORTANT DATES

• Submission of abstracts: June 17, 2016
• Submission of papers: June 24, 2016
• Paper notification: August 26, 2016

Generative and component approaches and domain-specific abstractions are revolutionizing software development just as automation and componentization revolutionized manufacturing. Raising the level of abstraction in software specification has been a fundamental goal of the computing community for several decades. Key technologies for automating program development and lifting the abstraction level closer to the problem domain are Generative Programming for program synthesis, Domain-Specific Languages (DSLs) for compact problem-oriented programming notations, and corresponding Implementation Technologies aiming at modularity, correctness, reuse, and evolution. As the field matures, Applications and Empirical Results are of increasing importance.

The International Conference on Generative Programming: Concepts & Experiences (GPCE) is a venue for researchers and practitioners interested in techniques that use program generation, domain-specific languages, and component deployment to increase programmer productivity, improve software quality, and shorten the time-to-market of software products. In addition to exploring cutting-edge techniques of generative software, our goal is to foster further cross-fertilization between the software engineering and the programming languages research communities.

SUBMISSIONS

We seek research papers reporting original and unpublished results of theoretical, empirical, conceptual, or experimental research that contribute to scientific knowledge in the areas listed below (the PC chair can advise on appropriateness). GPCE distinguishes the following types of submissions:

Research Papers:

• Full Papers: Full papers report original and unpublished results of theoretical, empirical, conceptual, or experimental research that contribute to scientific knowledge in the areas listed below (the PC chair can advise on appropriateness). Full paper submissions are limited to 10 pages + 2 extra pages for references.
• Short Papers: The goal of short papers is to promote current work on research and practice. Short papers represent an early communication of research and do not always require complete results as in the case of a full paper. In this way, authors can introduce new ideas to the community, discuss ideas and get early feedback. Please note that short papers are not intended to be position statements. Short papers are included in the proceedings and will be presented with a smaller time slot at the conference. Short papers are limited to 4 pages + 1 extra page for references.
• Tool demonstrations: Tool demonstrations should present tools that implement generative techniques, and are available for use. Any of the GPCE topics of interest are appropriate areas for tool demonstrations, although purely commercial tool demonstrations will not be accepted.

Submissions must provide a tool description of 4 pages, excluding 1 extra page for references and a demonstration outline including screenshots of up to 4 pages. Tool demonstrations must have the keywords "Tool Demo" or "Tool Demonstration" in the title. The 4-page tool description will, if the demonstration is accepted, be published in the proceedings. The 4-page demonstration outline will be used by the program committee only for evaluating the submission.

Tech talks: Depending on whether there is space in the program, GPCE may solicit Tech talks. See the GPCE'15 tech talks call for contributions for details. For now, if you are interested in presenting a Tech talk, please contact the chairs.

Submissions must adhere to the SIGPLAN proceedings style (sigplanconf.cls, see http://www.sigplan.org/authorInformation.htm) can be made via the submission page https://easychair.org/conferences/?conf=gpce16.

Authors of a set of top ranked papers selected by the GPCE'16 program committee will be invited to submit extended versions of their GPCE'16 papers to a special issue of the Elsevier Computer Languages, Systems and Structures (COMLAN) journal. The special issue will publish GPCE'16 papers by invitation from the guest editors and will only include top-ranked papers from GPCE'16 (based on the GPCE'16 review). The special issue will be published by Elsevier in Computer Languages, Systems and Structures (COMLAN): http://www.journals.elsevier.com/computer-languages-systems-and-structures/

TOPICS

GPCE seeks contributions on all topics related to generative software and its properties. As technology is maturing and sophisticated but increasingly complex applications and services are realized in a variety of application areas (e.g., Cloud Computing, Mobile Computing, Internet of Things, Cyber Physical Systems, Software Defined Networking, etc.), this year, we are particularly looking for empirical evaluations in this context.

Key topics include (but are certainly not limited to):

* Generative software

• Domain-specific languages
• Product lines
• Metaprogramming
• Program synthesis
• Implementation techniques and tool support

* Practical applications and empirical evaluations

• Empirical evaluations of all topics above
• Application areas and engineering practice

* Properties of generative software

• Correctness of generators and generated code
• Reuse and evolution
• Modularity, separation of concerns, understandability, and maintainability
• Performance engineering, nonfunctional properties
• Application areas and engineering practice

A more detailed list of topics can be found on the website.

Examples of key challenges in the field are

• Synthesizing code from declarative specifications
• Supporting extensible languages and language embedding
• Ensuring correctness and other nonfunctional properties of generated code; proving generators correct
• Improving error reporting with domain-specific error messages
• Reasoning about generators; handling variability-induced complexity in product lines
• Providing efficient interpreters and execution languages
• Human factors in developing and maintaining generators

Note on empirical evaluations: This year, GPCE seriously commits on encouraging submissions about empirical evaluations of generative software. Empirical papers often have a difficult stand at programming language venues. We understand the frustration with reviews for empirical papers that, for example, simply recommend repeating entire experiments with human subjects due to slight deviations in the execution. To alleviate these problems, we have asked several experts routinely working with empirical methods to join the program committee and we will actively seek external reviews where appropriate. During submissions, authors can optionally indicate whether their paper contains substantial empirical work, and we will invest all effort necessary to ensure that such papers will be reviewed by experts familiar with the used empirical research method. The program-committee discussions will reflect on both technical contribution and research method.

Policy: Incremental improvements over previously published work should have been evaluated through systematic, comparative, empirical, or experimental evaluation. Submissions must adhere to SIGPLAN's republication policy (http://www.sigplan.org/republicationpolicy.htm).

Please contact the program chair if you have any questions about how this policy applies to your paper (chairs@gpce.org).

ORGANIZATION

Chairs (chairs@gpce.org)

• General Chair: Bernd Fischer (Stellenbosch University, ZA)
• Program Chair: Ina Schaefer (Technische Universitat Braunschweig, DE)
• Publicity Chair: Christoph Seidl (Technische Universitat Braunschweig, DE)

Program Committee

• Kenichi Asai (Ochanomizu University)
• Anya Helene Bagge (University of Bergen, NO)
• Walter Binder (University of Lugano, CH)
• Sandrine Blazy (IRISA / University of Rennes 1, FR)
• Rastislav Bodik (University of Washington, US)
• Shigeru Chiba (University of Tokyo, JP)
• Ewen Denney (NASA Ames Research Center, US)
• Sebastian Erdweg (TU Darmstadt, DE)
• Martin Erwig (Oregon State University, US)
• Matthew Flatt (University of Utah, US)
• Aniruddha Gokhale (Vanderbilt University, US)
• Jeff Gray (University of Alabama, US)
• Michael Haupt (Oracle Labs)
• Christian Kastner (Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, US)
• Julia Lawall (LIP6, FR)
• Derek Rayside (University of Waterloo, CA)
• Tiark Rompf (Purdue & Oracle Labs, US)
• Ulrik Schultz (University of Southern Denmark, DK)
• Sandro Schulze (Technische Universitat Hamburg-Harburg, DE)
• Mary Sheeran (Chalmers University of Technology, SE)
• Norbert Siegmund (University of Passau, DE)
• Walid Taha
• Markus Volter (itemis, DE)
• Steffen Zschaler (King's College London, UK)
• Tijs van der Storm (Centrum Wiskunde & Informatica, NL)