IEE Proceedings-Software

                  Language Definitions and Tool Generation


Language definitions are no longer a toy for the happy few.  Instead
they are used, on a daily basis, in application areas as disparate as
Cobol  renovation, Java refactoring, smart card verification and in
application generation for domains including finance, industrial
automation and software engineering.

The common methodology  is that an application language is identified
in a given domain, that relevant aspects of that language are formally
defined  and  that desired  tools are generated on the basis of this
language definition. In the case of Cobol  renovation, the language in
question is Cobol and those aspects that are relevant for renovation
have to be formalized. In the case of application generation, the
language in question is probably new and has to be designed from
scratch.

Language aspects have to be defined, analyzed, and used to generate
appropriate tooling such as compilers, interpreters, typecheckers,
syntax-directed editors, debuggers, partial evaluators, test case
generators, documentation generators, and more.

The aim of this special issue is to bring together current research on
different aspects of formal language definitions and tool
generation. Topics of interest include, but are not limited to:

- Language definitions:  modular language definitions, language design
     assistants, re-usable definitons of language features, analysis of
     language definitions, interactive environments to support the
     development of language definitions, case studies.

- Tool generation: tool definitions, implementation techniques,
     interactive environments to support tool generation, tool
     architectures, intermediate representations, tool interoperability,
     application generators, case studies.

- Applications:  renovation, re-engineering, re-factoring,
     domain-specific languages, component interfaces, case studies.

Potential contributors may contact the guest editor to discuss the
potential suitability of their contribution:


Paul Klint
Centrum voor Wiskunde en Informatica
Kruislaan 413
1098 SJ Amsterdam

+31 20 592 4126 (phone)
Paul.Klint@cwi.nl (email)


No limit is imposed on the length of submitted manuscripts. All
submitted papers will be subject  to the IEE Proceedings' stringent
refereeing procedures.  Further guidance for authors can be obtained
at http://www.iee.org/Publish/Journals/Profjourn/Proc/sen/#Author_guide.
First manuscripts should be submitted in PDF form to the editorial
assistant, Mr Lee Baldwin, at lbaldwin@iee.org.uk and should be
accompanied by a covering email stating clearly the title of the
special issue to which they are submitted.


The deadline for the submission of first manuscripts is 31 October 2003.