IFIP Working Conference on Domain-Specific Languages (DSL)
6-8 September 2011, Bordeaux, France
http://dsl2011.bordeaux.inria.fr/
CALL FOR PAPERS (EXTENDED DEADLINE; IFIP SPONSORSHIP)
Domain-specific languages have long been a popular way to shorten
the distance from ideas to products in software engineering. On one
hand, the interface of a DSL lets domain experts express high-level
concepts succinctly in familiar notation, such as grammars for text or
scripts for animation, and often provides guarantees and tools that take
advantage of the specifics of the domain to help write and maintain
these particular programs. On the other hand, the implementation of a
DSL can automate many tasks traditionally performed by a few experts
to turn a specification into an executable, thus making this expertise
available widely. Overall, a DSL thus mediates a collaboration between
its users and implementers that results in software that is more usable,
more portable, more reliable, and more understandable.
These benefits of DSLs have been delivered in domains old and new, such
as signal processing, data mining, and Web scripting. Widely known
examples of DSLs include Matlab, Verilog, SQL, LINQ, HTML, OpenGL,
Macromedia Director, Mathematica, Maple, AutoLisp/AutoCAD, XSLT, RPM,
Make, lex/yacc, LaTeX, PostScript, and Excel. Despite these successes,
the adoption of DSLs have been stunted by the lack of general tools and
principles for developing, compiling, and verifying domain-specific
programs. General support for building and using DSLs is thus urgently
needed. Languages that straddle the line between the domain-specific
and the general-purpose, such as Perl, Tcl/Tk, and JavaScript, suggest
that such support be based on modern notions of language design and
software engineering. The goal of this conference, following the last
one in 2009, is to explore how present and future DSLs can fruitfully
draw from and potentially enrich these notions.
We seek research papers on the theory and practice of DSLs, including
but not limited to the following topics.
- Foundations, including semantics, formal methods, type theory, and
complexity theory - Language design, including concrete syntax, semantics, and types
- Software engineering, including domain analysis, software design,
and round-trip engineering - Modularity and composability of DSLs
- Software processes, including metrics for software and language
evaluation - Implementation, including parsing, compiling, program generation,
program analysis, transformation, optimization, and parallelization - Reverse engineering, re-engineering, design discovery, automated
refactoring - Hardware/software codesign
- Programming environments and tools, including visual languages,
debuggers, testing, and verification - Teaching DSLs and the use of DSLs in teaching
- Case studies in any domain, especially the general lessons they
provide for DSL design and implementation
The conference will include a visit to the city of Bordeaux, a tour
and tasting at the wine museum and cellar, and a banquet at La Belle