MoVES Events
Francqui Chair Theo D’Hondt - March/May 2010
The University of Namur cordially invites you to attend the series of lectures entitled: “Growing a Language from the Inside Out” by Prof. Theo D’Hondt (VUB), titular of the 2010 Francqui Chair, at the University of Namur (FUNDP), Faculty of Computer Science, Auditorium I2.
SCHEDULE
| Date | Time | Title | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Fri., March 19th | 15h00 17h00 | Inaugural Lecture: On the renewed need for language engineering. This lecture will be followed by a cocktail. Registration required. | |
| Fri., March 26th | 13h30 17h30 | Interpreters and Virtual Machines | |
| Fri., April 2nd | 13h30 17h30 | Continuations and Continuation Passing Style | |
| Fri., April 23rd | 13h30 17h30 | Using primitive execution models | |
| Fri., April 30th | 13h30 17h30 | Memory Management as a Crosscutting Concern | |
| Fri., May 7th | 13h30 17h30 | Binding it all Together | |
ABSTRACT
The phrase “Growing a Language” was coined by Guy Steele in his widely recognised keynote talk at the 1998 oopsla conference. It refers to the need for programming languages that consist of a powerful and expressive core that is easily extended to satisfy specific needs. In this series of lectures we discuss a similar need at the level of the language processor itself. We need to bridge the gap between the abstract concerns addressed by the language and the features offered by the hardware platform, with all their qualities and limitations. Nevertheless, we want to underline the need for software reuse at this very technical level – a fact which is far too often forgotten.
The notion of Programming Language Engineering was introduced to describe this branch of computer science. It refers to the assembly and mastery of relevant methods and techniques from science and technology to facilitate the construction and application of programming language processors. It is one of the oldest disciplines in computer science and it has never been very far away from the core of research in our field.
The explosive growth in hardware performance, known as Moore’s law, was until very recently responsible for a false sense of security in the world of computing. In particular, many felt that we had reached a stable situation in the use of programming languages. Today we see that computer engineering has been forced to choose the path of replication rather than miniaturisation in order to follow the ever increasing demands for performance. This has led to a renewed interest in parallel computing and the programming language abstractions required by it. This evolution is in full swing in the field of high performance computing but may be expected to extend to the desktop in the very near future.
These lectures are inspired by two concerns. In the first place, they aspire to rekindle interest in programming language research results dating back to more than 20 years ago: and hence outside the time window accessible to young – and not so young – researchers. For instance notions of continuations are re-emerging, but are today far too poorly understood. An immersion in past knowledge rather than a re-invention of the wheel seems indicated. In the second place, these lectures are a critique of the outright extrapolation of current language technology to handle the many-core revolution.
Finally, we eat our own dog food: these lectures will refer to actual programming languages and their related software artefacts; and the end product will be a concrete language processor built according to the precepts advanced during the lectures.
REGISTRATION
Lectures will take place at:
Faculty of Computer Science Auditorium I2 (1st floor) Rue Grandgagnage 21 5000 Namur
Attendance is free but registration is required. To register, please send a message to Isabelle Daelman. Parking for visitors is available rue Henri Lemaître, but you must ask Mrs Daelman for a parking permit.
For any other question, please contact Prof. Patrick Heymans.
Symposium - Case Studies as Empirical Research Methods - April, 15th 2009
Software engineering research in general (and software evolution research in particular) must seek to validate its techniques in an realistic context. Indeed, “in vitro” research is necesary to understand where and why a given technique makes a difference. However, it must be followed by “in vivo” research to see whether a given technique delivers upon its promises under the harsh conditions of reality. This explains why Case studies are one of the dominant research methods in Software Engineering, as they provide a lightweight approach to “in vivo” research.
However, what precisely does it mean to do a case study ? When does a case becomes so simple that we speak of a toy-example ? How do we avoid that as a researcher to get too involved (and biased) ?
During this symposium we will try to (at least partially) address these questions. Two leading researchers (namely Prof. Arie Van Deursen from the Delft University of Technology - The Netherlands and Prof. Per Runeson from the Lund University - Sweden) will share their experience with the case study research method in two presentations.
The symposium will be held on Wednesday, April 15th 2009 between 13:30 and 15:30 in the University of Antwerp - Department of Mathematics and Computer Science. (The program, directions on how to get there and other practical information can be found at http://www.lore.ua.ac.be/Events/MovesCasestudies2009/). The symposium will be followed by the Ph.D. defense of Bart Van Rompaey concerning Developer testing as an asset during software evolution: a series of empirical studies.
Both the symposium and the ph.d. defense are open to everyone interested and free of charge. However participants should register by sending an e-mail to Prof. Serge Demeyer (http://www.win.ua.ac.be/~sdemey/email.html).
LATE 2009 - 02/03/2009
| 5th International Workshop on Linking Aspect Technology and Evolution | |
|---|---|
 | Charlottesville, Virginia, USA March 2, 2009 http://www.aosd.net/workshops/late/2009/ MoVES Partners: VUB |
| The 5th International Workshop on Linking Aspect Technology and Evolution LATE'09 is organized in cooperation with MoVES. Software evolution lies at the heart of the software development process, and is hindered by problems such as maintainability, evolvability, understandability, etc. Aspect-oriented software development (AOSD) is an emerging software development paradigm that tries to achieve better separation of concerns. It is often claimed that aspect-oriented design and implementation improves maintainability, evolvability and understandability of the software. This workshop aims to investigate this claim and explore the relationship between software evolution and AOSD. In particular, the workshop’s objective is to study the impact of AOSD on software evolution on the one hand, and the impact of software evolution on AOSD on the other hand. The former subject could for example deal with diverse issues such as how using AOSD improves the quality of the software, and thus eases software evolution, or how existing applications can be evolved into AOSD applications. The latter subject is concerned with the way existing software evolution techniques (e.g., refactoring) are affected by AOSD, and how they should be extended in order to include AOSD concepts. |
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VaMoS 2008 - 28/01/2009
| 3rd International Workshop on Variability Modelling of Software-intensive Systems | |
|---|---|
 | Sevilla, Spain January 28-30, 2009 http://www.vamos-workshop.net/ MoVES Partners: FUNDP, UCL, VUB |
| Managing variability is a major concern in the development, maintenance and evolution of softwareintensive systems. To be managed effectively and efficiently, variability must be explicitly modelled. Numerous variability modelling techniques have been proposed both by academia and industry. The aim of the VaMoS workshop series is to bring together researchers from various areas of variability modelling to discuss advantages, drawbacks and complementarities of the various approaches and to present new results for variability modelling and management. | |
BENEVOL 2008 - 11 & 12/12/2008
| 7th BElgian-NEtherlands software eVOLution workshop | |
|---|---|
 | Eindhoven, The Netherlands December 11 - 12, 2008 http://www-set.win.tue.nl/benevol2008 MoVES Partners: almost all |
| This year the 7th edition of the BElgian-NEtherlands software eVOLution workshop (BENEVOL 2008) will take place at Eindhoven, The Netherlands. The two-day workshop will be held on Thursday 11 and Friday 12 December 2008. The aim of the workshop is to bring researchers to identify and discuss important principles, problems, techniques and results related to software evolution research and practice. Special theme of BENEVOL 2008 is Ensuring software quality in evolution. | |
WCRE 2008 - 15/10/2008
| 15th Working Conference on Reverse Engineering | |
|---|---|
 | Antwerp, Belgium October 15 - 18, 2008 http://swerl.tudelft.nl/wcre2008 MoVES Partners: UA, TUD, UCL, FUNDP |
| WCRE 2008, the 15th Working Conference on Reverse Engineering will be organized in Antwerp in October 2008. WCRE is the premier research conference on the theory and practice of recovering information from existing software and systems. | |
CHAMDE 2008 - 30/09/2008
| International Workshop on Challenges in Model Driven Software Engineering | |
|---|---|
 | Toulouse, France September 28, 2008 http://ssel.vub.ac.be/ChaMDE08 MoVES Partners: VUB, KUL, UMH (PC: FUNDP, KUL, VUB) |
| CHAMDE’08, the Workshop on Challenges in Model Driven Software Engineering will be organized at MoDELS in September 2008. The main objective of this workshop is to provide a forum to disseminate new and revolutionary ideas, to discuss future challenges, and to encourage new ways of thinking in the field of MDE. | |
MCCM 2008 - 30/09/2008
| International Workshop on Model Co-Evolution and Consistency Management | |
|---|---|
 | Toulouse, France September 30, 2008 http://www.info.fundp.ac.be/mccm/ MoVES Partners: VUB, FUNDP (PC: FUNDP, UA, VUB, UCL, UMH) |
| MCCM’08, the Workshop on Model Co-Evolution and Consistency Management will be organized at MoDELS in September 2008. The main objective of this workshop is to provide a forum for researchers and practitioners who work on innovative solutions to deal with model co-evolution and consistency management. | |
SVPP 2008 - 08/09/2008
| Symposium on Software Variability from a Programmer's Perspective | |
|---|---|
 | Brussels, Belgium August 8-9, 2008 http://prog.vub.ac.be/svpp08/index.html MoVES Partners: VUB (PC: FUNDP, VUB) |
| The goal of this two-day symposium is to promote discussion about proper programming language support required to deal with software variability. Rather than ad hoc implementations of infrastructure to cope with software variability, we search for solutions that provide built-in support by either extending existing programming languages with the language features required, or creating completely new domain-specific languages. Invited speakers are: Jim Coplien, Robert Hirschfeld, Karl Lieberherr, and Oscar Nierstrasz |
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2008 ACM SIGSOFT Outstanding Research Award
| 2008 ACM SIGSOFT Outstanding Research Award | |
|---|---|
 | Prof. Axel van Lamsweerde (UCL) has been awarded the 2008 ACM SIGSOFT Outstanding Research Award. This award is presented to an individual who has made significant and lasting research contributions to the theory or practice of software engineering. |
Software Engineering Seminar - 29/04/2008
| Prof. Dr. Jean-Pierre Briot and Dr. Mark S. Miller | |
|---|---|
| | Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Campus Etterbeek, Brussels, Belgium April 29, 2008 - 13h00 MoVES Partners: VUB |
| Agents and Components: Comparison and Perspectives by Jean-Pierre Briot (Laboratoire d’Informatique de Paris 6 (LIP6), Paris Universite Pierre et Marie Curie - CNRS) Agents and components, although developed independently, are both concepts aimed at designing more composable and adaptable software. The first part of the talk will compare them along the history of programming abstractions and include other important steps such as, e.g., objects, actors and services. More precisely, we will consider a common referential with three dimensions: action selection flexibility, coupling flexibility and abstraction level. Then, if times allows, in a second part of the talk, we will point out a few directions for combining notions of agents and components. A first direction is in making components more autonomous and flexible, by importing some ideas from agents and multi-agent systems. A second and dual direction is in using components to design building blocks for constructing agents. Tradeoffs in Retrofitting Security: An Experience Report by Mark S. Miller (Google Research) In 1973, John Reynold’s and James Morris’ Gedanken Language retrofit object-capability security into an Algol-like base language. Today, there are active projects retrofitting Java, Javascript, Python, Mozart/Oz, OCaml, Perl, and Pict. These represent a variety of approaches, with different tradeoffs regarding legacy compatibility, safety, and expressivity. In this talk I propose a taxonomy of these approaches, and discuss some of the lessons learned to date. I will also demo CapDesk, a proof of concept of a virus-safe desktop, applying object-capability principles at the user interface level. |
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EVOL@Mons 2008 - 25/02/2008
EVOL@Mons - Research Seminar on Software Evolution.
In order to participate, read instructions on the following website http://w3.umh.ac.be/genlog/EvolMons/EvolMons2008.html
Talk by Prof. Hans Vangheluwe - 15/11/2007
| Multi-Paradigm Modelling and the quest for tool support | |
|---|---|
 | Prof. Hans Vangheluwe Modeling, Simulation & Design Lab School of Computer Science McGill University Montréal, Québec, Canada H3A 2A7 |
| Download the slides of the talk. | |
ABSTRACT
Models are invariably used in Engineering (for design) and Science (for analysis) to precisely describe structure as well as behaviour of systems. Models may have components described in different formalisms, and may span different levels of abstraction. In addition, models are frequently transformed into domains/formalisms where certain questions can be easily answered. We introduce the term “multi-paradigm modelling” to denote the interplay between multi-abstraction modelling, multi-formalism modelling and the modelling of model transformations.
The presentation will start with some ancedotal evidence of the need for multi-paradigm modelling. Subsequently, the foundations of multi-paradigm modelling will be presented. It will be shown how all aspects of multi-paradigm modelling can be explicitly (meta-)modeled enabling the efficient synthesis of (possibly domain-specific) multi-paradigm (visual) modelling environments.We have implemented our ideas in the tool AToM^3 (A Tool for Multi-formalism and Meta Modelling). AToM^3 will be introduced by means of a simple example. Finally, an overview will be given of current and future challenges of multi-paradigm modelling.
| Short CV of Prof. Hans Vangheluwe |
|---|
| Hans Vangheluwe is an Associate Professor in the School of Computer Science at McGill University, Montréal, Canada. He holds a D.Sc. degree, as well as M.Sc. degrees in Computer Science, and Theoretical Physics, all from Ghent University in Belgium. He has been a Research Fellow at the Centre de Recherche Informatique de Montréal, Canada, the Concurrent Engineering Research Center, WVU, Morgantown, WV, USA, at the Delft University of Technology, The Netherlands, and at the Supercomputing and Education Research Center of the Indian Institute of Science (IISc), Bangalore, India. At McGill University, he teaches Modelling and Simulation, as well as Software Design. He also heads the Modelling and Simulation and Design (MSDL) research lab. He has been the Principal Investigator of a number of research projects focused on the development of a multi-formalism theory for Modelling and Simulation. Some of this work has led to the WEST++ tool, which was commercialised for use in the design and optimization of bioactivated sludge Waste Water Treatment Plants. His current interests are in domain-specific modelling and simulation. The MSDL’s tool AToM3 (A Tool for Multi-formalism and Meta-Modelling) developed in collaboration with Prof. Juan de Lara uses meta-modelling and graph grammars to specify and generate domain-specific environments. Recently, he has applied model-driven techniques in a variety of areas such as modern computer games, dependable and privacy-preserving systems(the Belgian electronic ID card), embedded systems, and to the design and synthesis of advanced user interfaces. |
BENEVOL 2007
The 6th edition of the BElgian-NEtherlands software eVOLution workshop (BENEVOL 2007) will take place at the University of Namur, Belgium.
The aim of the workshop is to bring together researchers to identify and discuss important principles, problems, techniques and results related to software evolution research and practice.
The theme of this 2007 edition of BENEVOL is : “Evolving Software-Intensive Systems”
The term is meant to invite contributions considering software as part of a broader system that defines its purpose and in which it operates. For instance, software is usually part of an organisational information system, or is embedded into physical devices (such as mobile phones). Thereby, software interacts with a complex, heterogeneous and changing environment. Evolving software must continue to serve the purpose imposed by its context and gracefully co-evolve with it.
Participation & Submission :
If you are interested in giving a talk at BENEVOL 2007, please send us an extended abstract of your talk to benevol@info.fundp.ac.be.
Contributions are in the range of 2-4 pages and describe recent results or novel ideas in the research and practice of software evolution
Important dates :
| Submission deadline | November 1, 2007 |
|---|---|
| Registration deadline | December 7, 2007 |
| BENEVOL’07 workshop | December 13-14, 2007 |
7th International Conference on Aspect-Oriented Software Development
 | AOSD 2008 is the premier conference on software modularity, with an emphasis on novel notions of modularity that crosscut traditional abstraction boundaries. AOSD2008 is hosted by the Vrije Universiteit Brussel in Belgium during the period 31 March 2008 - 4 april 2008. |
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8th International Workshop on Object-Oriented Reengineering
| 8th International Workshop on Object-Oriented Reengineering (http://smallwiki.unibe.ch/woor2007/), collocated with ECOOP 2007, Berlin, Germany, 30 July 2007. |
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MoVES UA - KUL - TUD event
1 June 2007
Location: Universiteit Antwerpen
The event consisted of several presentations during which the Universiteit Antwerpen, the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, and the Technische Universiteit Delft presented their MoVES related research tracks. The afternoon consisted of several presentations during which one of our european partners also took the opportunity to present his work. The presentations are available for download.
Please contact the presenters if you spot an opportunity for collaboration!
MoVES FUNDP - UCL event
25 May 2007
Location: Facultés Universitaires Notre-Dame de la Paix Namur
The event consisted of several presentations during which the Facultés Universitaires Notre-Dame de la Paix Namur and the Université catholique de Louvain presented their MoVES related research tracks. In the morning we had eight presentations by members of the UCL. The afternoon was filled with six presentations by members of FUNDP (PReCISE). The event was ended with a cocktail and poster session during which we had a great opportunity to discuss possible collaborations. A booklet of the PReCISE group is available in which you can find more info about the work of its researchers. The presentations are also available for download.
Please contact the presenters if you spot an opportunity for collaboration!
- An Overview of PReCISE - Prof. Dr. Jean-Luc Hainaut (FUNDP)
MoVES ULB - ULg event
20 April 2007
Location: Université Libre de Bruxelles
The event consisted of several presentations during which the Université Libre de Bruxelles and the Université de Liège presented their MoVES related research tracks. The general setup of the meeting was similar to the kickoff event we had in march. The event was ended with a reception during which the members of the different partners had the opportunity to discuss the presentations.
Please contact the presenters if you spot an opportunity for collaboration!
The presentations are available for download:
MoVES Kickoff event
2 March 2007
Location: Vrije Universiteit Brussel
The event consisted of several presentations during which the Programming Technology Lab and the Systems and Software Engineering Lab of the Vrije Universiteit Brussel were presented. The presentations covered a number of selected research topics which are possible candidates for setting up a collaboration. Afterwards there was an open poster session during which the members of both research groups presented their work. To get an idea of the work of all members you can download the research descriptions booklet which was distributed during the event. The presentations are also available for download.
- Introduction to IAP - Veronique Feys (Belgian Science Policy Office)
Please contact the members of SSEL and PROG if you spot an opportunity for collaboration! Here are some photos taken at the event 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6)
Ambient CALA Seminar
13-14 February 2007 Location: Lille, France
The Ambient CALA Seminar united researchers from the Université des Sciences et Technologies de Lille - LIFL and the Vrije Universiteit Brussel who are working in the domain of ubiquitous computing and ambient intelligence.
The event has its own website:
Junior CALA Seminar
19-20 February 2007 Location: Vrije Universiteit Brussel
The Junior CALA Seminar is aimed at bringing together junior researchers of the Université des Sciences et Technologies de Lille - LIFL and the Vrije Universiteit Brussel. The research topics presented fit within the scope of the MoVES network.
The event has its own website:
WASDETT 2008
International Workshop on Advanced Software Development Tools and Techniques.
Will be collocated with ECOOP 2008.
ERCIM EVOL 2007
Third International ERCIM Symposium on Software Evolution.
Collocated with ICSM 2007.
VAMOS 2008
Second International Workshop on Variability Modelling of Software-intensive Systems.
ASE 2010
International Conference on Automated Software Engineering.
ASE 2010 will be organized in Belgium.
Talks about Software Evolution organized by the UCL (13/3/2008)
Tudor Girba University of Berne (Switzerland)
12h00 - 13h00
Hismo: modeling history to understand software evolution.
Abstract: Over the past three decades, more and more research has been spent on understanding software evolution. However, the approaches developed so far rely on ad-hoc models, or on too specific meta-models, and thus, it is difficult to reuse or compare their results. We argue for the need of an explicit and generic meta-model that recognizes evolution as an explicit phenomenon and models it as a first class entity. Our solution is to encapsulate the evolution in the explicit notion of history as a sequence of versions, and to build a meta-model around these notions called Hismo. To show the usefulness of our meta-model we exercise its different characteristics by building several reverse engineering applications. Bio: Tudor Girba attained the PhD degree in 2005 at the University of Berne, Switzerland, and since then he is working as senior researcher at the same university. His interests lie in the area of software engineering with focus on reengineering. He is one of the main architects and developers of Moose analysis platform, he developed the Hismo software evolution meta-model, he co-authored the Mondrian interactive visualization scripting engine, and he participated in the development of several other reverse engineering tools and models. He is the president of the Moose Association and he is member of the Executive Board of CHOOSE. He also offers consulting services in the area of reengineering and quality assurance.
Tudor Girba University of Berne (Switzerland)
14h00 - 16h00
Understanding Software with Pictures
Abstract: Understanding software systems is hampered by their sheer size and complexity. Software visualization encodes the data found in these systems into pictures and enables the human eye to interpret it. In this lecture we present the concepts of software visualization and we show several examples of how visualizations can help in understanding software systems. We will also complement the theory with practical demos using the Moose analysis platform (http://moose.unibe.ch). Bio: Tudor Girba attained the PhD degree in 2005 at the University of Berne, Switzerland, and since then he is working as senior researcher at the same university. His interests lie in the area of software engineering with focus on reengineering. He is one of the main architects and developers of Moose analysis platform, he developed the Hismo software evolution meta-model, he co-authored the Mondrian interactive visualization scripting engine, and he participated in the development of several other reverse engineering tools and models. He is the president of the Moose Association and he is member of the Executive Board of CHOOSE. He also offers consulting services in the area of reengineering and quality assurance.