SLS 2013 - Workshop on Scalable Language Specification

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.