PLE 2014 - Workshop on Programming Language Evolution

Programming languages tend to evolve in response to user needs, hardware advances, and research developments. Language evolution artefacts may include new compilers and interpreters or new language standards. Evolving programming languages is however challenging at various levels. Firstly, the impact on developers can be negative. For example, if two language versions are incompatible (e.g., Python 2 and 3) developers must choose to either co-evolve their codebase (which may be costly) or reject the new language version (which may have support implications). Secondly, evaluating a proposed language change is difficult; language designers often lack the infrastructure to assess the change. This may lead to older features remaining in future language versions to maintain backward compatibility, increasing the language's complexity (e.g., FORTRAN 77 to Fortran 90). Thirdly, new language features may interact badly with existing features, leading to unforeseen bugs and ambiguities (e.g., the addition of Java generics). This workshop brings together researchers and developers interested in programming language evolution, to share new ideas and insights, to discuss challenges and solutions, and to advance programming language design.
Topics include (but are not limited to):
Programming language and software co-evolution
Empirical studies and evidence-driven evolution
Language-version integration and interoperation
Historical retrospectives and experience reports
Tools and IDE support for source-code mining and refactoring/rejuvenation
Gradual feature introductions (e.g., optional type systems)
If you have any questions relating to the suitability of a submission please contact the program chairs.
Submission and publication
Contributions should be submitted via the EasyChair submission page for PLE14. Submitted papers must be written in English and formatted according to the ACM SIGPLAN style (double column, 9pt format) and limited to 6 pages, including figures and references. Appendices may be included for review purpose only (and clearly marked as such), although the submission should stand alone without them. Any paper submitted must adhere to ACM SIGPLAN republication policy. All submissions will be subject to peer review by the program committee.
Accepted papers will appear in the ACM Digital Library. At least one author of any accepted paper will be expected to present their work at the workshop.