The focus of this workshop is on formal language specification frameworks and how they scale up when applied to larger languages. The workshop provides a forum for discussing practical and theoretical issues, and aims to promote dissemination and collaboration between the developers and users of language specification frameworks.
Background

Many hundreds of programming languages have been designed and implemented, and dozens are currently in widespread use. Older languages evolve to incorporate new features, and new programming languages are continually being developed – especially domain-specific languages, designed for use in a particular sector.

Each language needs to be precisely specified. A specification of a major language usually consists of a succinct formal grammar, determining its syntax, together with a lengthy informal explanation of its intended semantics. Unfortunately, such informal explanations are inherently imprecise, open to misinterpretation, and not amenable to validation. In the few cases where the semantics of major languages have been specified formally, the required effort appears to have been huge, which has discouraged wider adoption of formal semantics.
Objectives

The workshop gathers together leading researchers working on the development and specification of programming and domain-specific languages. One of the objectives is to clarify which features of the various specification frameworks affect scaling up to major languages. A further objective is to raise awareness of current developments of practical relevance, including tool support for language specification, prototyping, and verification.

The invited speakers will present features and applications of particular specification frameworks. The workshop programme will also include presentations of submitted papers, time for informal discussions, and a poster display.
Location

The workshop will be held at Microsoft Research in Cambridge, UK. Accommodation for a limited number of participants has been reserved at Downing College.

More information regarding registration will be provided closer to the event.

Invited speakers

• Egon Börger University of Pisa

• Mark van den Brand Eindhoven University of Technology

• Kevin Hammond University of St Andrews

• Sir Tony Hoare Microsoft Research Cambridge

• Paul Klint CWI, Amsterdam

• Shriram Krishnamurthi Brown University

• José Meseguer University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

• Grigore Roşu University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

• Dave Schmidt Kansas State University

• Peter Sewell University of Cambridge
Important dates

· March 25: Submission deadline

· April 15: Author notification

· April 29: Registration deadline

· May 31 Final versions of papers and posters due

· June 25–27: Workshop
Submissions

Authors who wish to present their research at the workshop are invited to submit an extended abstract of up to 4 pages (including references). Submissions should be in PDF (A4 format) and will be submitted using the easychair system by March 25th. A link will be provided shortly. A selection will be made by the organisers with the assistance of the invited speakers, based primarily on interest and relevance to the workshop objectives.
Proceedings

The accepted extended abstracts (and any full papers based on them) will be made available to workshop participants electronically. The workshop proceedings will not be formally published; research intended for publication elsewhere (or previously published) can be submitted.
Registration

Information about registration will be provided closer to the time of the workshop.
Posters

Registered participants who wish to display a poster related to the workshop objectives should submit the PDF through the easychair website, for which a link will be provided shortly. The posters will be printed in A2 format.

Organisers

The workshop is organised and sponsored by Microsoft Research Cambridge in collaboration with the PLanCompS research project. The invited speakers are funded by EPSRC.

Andrew Kennedy
Programming Principles and Tools Group
Microsoft Research Cambridge
akenn@microsoft.com

Peter Mosses
Department of Computer Science
Swansea University
p.d.mosses@swan.ac.uk