Workshop on Programming Language Evolution (PLE) 2014
(colocated with ECOOP 2014)

http://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/research/cprg/ple14/

Call for papers
---------------

Programming languages tend to evolve in response to user needs,
hardware advances, and research developments. Language evolution
artefacts may include new compilers and interpreters or new language
standards. Evolving programming languages is however challenging at
various levels. Firstly, the impact on developers can be negative. For
example, if two language versions are incompatible (e.g., Python 2 and
3) developers must choose to either co-evolve their codebase (which
may be costly) or reject the new language version (which may have
support implications). Secondly, evaluating a proposed language change
is difficult; language designers often lack the infrastructure to
assess the change. This may lead to older features remaining in future
language versions to maintain backward compatibility, increasing the
language's complexity (e.g., FORTRAN 77 to Fortran 90). Thirdly, new
language features may interact badly with existing features, leading
to unforeseen bugs and ambiguities (e.g., the addition of Java
generics). This workshop brings together researchers and developers
interested in programming language evolution, to share new ideas and
insights, to discuss challenges and solutions, and to advance
programming language design.

Topics include (but are not limited to): 

  * Programming language and software co-evolution
  * Empirical studies and evidence-driven evolution
  * Language-version integration and interoperation
  * Historical retrospectives and experience reports
  * Tools and IDE support for source-code mining and refactoring/rejuvenation
  * Gradual feature introductions (e.g., optional type systems)

If you have any questions relating to the suitability of a submission
please contact the program chairs Raoul and Dominic 
(raoul.urma@cl.cam.ac.uk, dominic.orchard@cl.cam.ac.uk). 

Submission and publication
--------------------------

We are accepting both full papers and talk abstracts for short 15
minute talks (which may be more informal in style). Both kinds of
contribution should be submitted via the EasyChair submission page for
PLE14.

Talk abstracts should be no more than 300 words, written in
English. PC members and chairs may submit talk abstracts.

Submitted papers must be written in English and formatted according to
the ACM SIGPLAN style (double column, 9pt format) (see SIGPLAN Author
Information page (link) for more information and style files).  Papers
should be limited to 6 pages, including figures and references.
Appendices may be included for review purpose only (and clearly marked
as such), although the submissions should stand alone without
them. Any paper submitted must adhere to ACM SIGPLAN's republication
policy (link). Accepted papers will appear in the ACM Digital Library.

Any PC member, other than the chairs, may author or co-author a
 submitted paper (they will be excluded from any evaluation or
 discussion of this paper during the review process).

All submissions will be subject to peer review. At least one author of
any accepted paper will be expected to present their work at the
workshop.

Important dates
---------------

* Submission: Monday 16th June 2014 (Anywhere-on-Earth)
* Notification: Monday 23rd June 2014
* Final papers due: Tuesday 1st July 2014

* Talk abstracts due: Monday 23rd June 2014
* Talk notification: Friday 27th June 2014

* Workshop: Monday 28th July 2014

Workshop format
---------------

The workshop schedule will comprise presentations given for accepted
papers, short talks, and a keynote presentation by Martin Odersky. 
Depending on submissions, an afternoon discussion may be included. 

Workshop organisation
---------------------

Program chairs:
 * Raoul-Gabriel Urma (raoul.urma@cl.cam.ac.uk) 
 * Dominic Orchard (dominic.orchard@cl.cam.ac.uk)

General chair:
 * Alan Mycroft (am@cl.cam.ac.uk) 

Program committee:
 * Robert Bowdidge (Google)
 * Sophia Drossopoulou (Imperial College London, UK)
 * Kim Mens (Universite catholique de Louvain (UCL), Belgium)
 * Alan Mycroft (University of Cambridge, UK)
 * Dominic Orchard (co-chair) (University of Cambridge, UK)
 * Jeff Overbey (Auburn University, AL, US)
 * Chris Parnin (Georgia Institute of Technology, AT, US)
 * Max Schaefer (Semmle Ltd., Oxford, UK)
 * Peter Sommerlad (IFS Institute for Software at FHO/HSR Rapperswil)
 * Alexander J. Summers (ETH Zurich)
 * Raoul-Gabriel Urma (co-chair) (University of Cambridge, UK)
 * Louis Wasserman (Google)