OVERVIEW


Program debugging is an important process to improve the quality of software. The First International Workshop on Program Debugging in China (IWPDC 2010) will be co-located with the 10th International Conference on Quality Software (QSIC 2010) in Zhangjiajie, China, which is an UNESCO World Natural Heritage famous for its magnificent views. QSIC 2010 will be a two-day event to be held on July 14–15, 2010.

IWPDC 2010 covers advances and challenges in the latest research on program debugging in China, and focuses in particular on three aspects: methodology, technology, and environment. It also accepts reports that describe industrial experiences and empirical studies on these aspects. The workshop provides an international forum for researchers and practitioners to exchange views, identify challenges, and present new developments in the context of program debugging in China.


OBJECTIVE


Modern software is increasingly complex. When programs fail, debugging is a de facto strategy to identify the cause of the failures, repair them, and retest the repaired software. Despite research efforts, debugging processes in China are still largely manual. It poses a problem as the size of software increases. On the other hand, automatic fault localization still imprecisely pinpoints the locations of faults and cannot efficiently and reliably capture and replay failed executions; fault repair shows unsatisfactory progress; and the information presented to developers do not precisely help them answer debugging questions. Furthermore, formal verification techniques do not scale well to support large and complex applications, static techniques are often imprecise, and dynamic techniques may involve heavy performance overhead. Large-scale applications may be developed using heterogeneous programming languages and platforms, whereas research techniques usually assume homogeneity. All of these widen the gap between what research proposals can offer and what the industry in China needs, so that practitioners recede from adopting various advanced research proposals.

China is emerging to become an innovation center. The software industry is one of the key directions in the modern world. However, there is no academic forum that brings researchers, managers, developers, and other stakeholders together to present new research ideas and inspiring experiences consolidated from the application of existing techniques to industrial case studies, and crystallize the challenges faced by the software industry in China.

There is a need, therefore, for a workshop on program debugging in China. The First International Workshop on Program Debugging in China (IWPDC 2010) will be held in conjunction with the 10th International Conference on Quality Software (QSIC 2010).


CALL FOR PAPERS


IWPDC 2010 welcomes submissions in all aspects related to program debugging in China. All accepted papers will appear in the Proceedings of QSIC 2010 published by IEEE Computer Society. Submissions may cover, but are not limited to, the following topics:

* Challenges

Key challenges due to recent advances in hardware, sensing or software computing technologies. Industrial obstacles and achievements on the application of research-based program debugging methodologies, technologies, or environments.

* Methodologies

Novel approaches to conducting program debugging. Integration with other activities in various software development methodologies. Integration with other techniques or methodologies developed by other communities.

* Technologies

Innovative manual, semi-automated or automated program debugging techniques. Techniques to debug various types of software or co-design software in various application domains.

* Environments

Issues in providing a usable, effective, efficient, and dependable operation program or pervasive environment for program debugging technology, and its integration with other types of environments.

* Experience Reports, Case Studies, Empirical Studies, and Experiments

Experiments and empirical studies of program debugging methodologies, technologies and environments in China. Industrial experience reports and case studies on their applications in China.