PLATEAU 2018
International Workshop on Evaluation and Usability of Programming Languages and Tools

Co-located with SPLASH 2018
November 5, 2018, Boston, MA, USA

Programming languages exist to enable programmers to develop software effectively. But programmer efficiency depends on the usability of the languages and tools with which they develop software. The aim of this workshop is to discuss methods, metrics and techniques for evaluating the usability of languages and language tools. The supposed benefits of such languages and tools cover a large space, including making programs easier to read, write, and maintain; allowing programmers to write more flexible and powerful programs; and restricting programs to make them more safe and secure.

PLATEAU gathers the intersection of researchers in the programming language, programming tool, and human-computer interaction communities to share their research and discuss the future of evaluation and usability of programming languages and tools.

### Topics

Some particular areas of interest are:
- empirical studies of programming languages
- methodologies and philosophies behind language and tool evaluation
- software design metrics and their relations to the underlying language
- user studies of language features and software engineering tools
- visual techniques for understanding programming languages
- design of new programming languages
- critical comparisons of programming paradigms
- tools to support evaluating programming languages
- psychology of programming
- domain specific language (e.g. database languages, security/privacy languages, architecture description languages) usability and evaluation

### Types of Submissions

PLATEAU encourages submissions of three types of papers.

Research and position papers: We encourage papers that describe work-in-progress or recently completed work based on the themes and goals of the workshop or related topics, report on experiences gained, question accepted wisdom, raise challenging open problems, or propose speculative new approaches. We will accept two types of papers: research papers up to 8 pages in length; and position papers up to 2 pages in length.

Hypotheses papers: Hypotheses papers explicitly identify beliefs of the research community or software industry about how a programming language, programming language feature, or programming language tool affects programming practice. Hypotheses can be collected from mailing lists, blog posts, paper introductions, developer forums, or interviews. Papers should clearly document the source(s) of each hypothesis and discuss the importance, use, and relevance of the hypotheses on research or practice. In addition, we invite language designers to share some of the usability reasoning that influenced their work. These will serve as an important first step in advancing our understanding of how language design supports programmers. Papers may also, but are not required to, review evidence for or against the hypotheses identified. Hypotheses papers can be up to 4 pages in length.

### Submission Site

PLATEAU papers should be submitted via https://plateau18.hotcrp.com/.

### Format
Submissions should use the OASIcs format described here: https://www.dagstuhl.de/en/publications/oasics/instructions-for-authors/. Please also ensure that your submission is legible when printed on a black and white printer. In particular, please check that colors remain distinct and font sizes are legible.

All types of papers will be published in OASIcs (https://www.dagstuhl.de/en/publications/oasics/) at the authors’ discretion.