WCOP'99: ECOOP Workshop on Component-Oriented Programming

Wolfgang Weck (Wolfgang.Weck@abo.fi)
Mon, 01 Feb 1999 19:27:06 +0200

Call for Position Statements and Participation

Fourth International Workshop on Component-Oriented Programming
WCOP'99

(in conjunction with ECOOP'99)

Lisbon, Portugal
14 June 1999

http://www.abo.fi/~Wolfgang.Weck/WCOP/99/

MOTIVATION

WCOP'99 seeks position papers on the important field of
component-oriented programming (COP). WCOP'99 is the fourth event in a
series of highly successful workshops, held in conjunction with every
ECOOP since 1996.

COP has been described as the natural extension of object-oriented
programming to the realm of independently extensible systems. Several
important approaches have emerged over the recent years, including
CORBA, COM (COM+, DCOM, ActiveX, DirectX, ...), JavaBeans.

A component is not an object, but provides the resources to instantiate
objects. Often, a single component will provide interfaces to several
closely related classes. Hence, COP is about architecture and packaging,
besides interoperation between objects.

After WCOP'96 focused on the fundamental terminology of COP, the
subsequent workshops expanded into the many related facets of component
software. WCOP'99 shall emphasis architectural design and construction
of component-based systems beyond ad-hoc reuse of unrelated components.
In particular, a focus on component frameworks as introduced below, is
suggested.

COP aims at producing software components for a component market and for
late composition. Composers are third parties, possibly the end user,
who are not able or willing to change components. This requires
standards to allow independently created components to interoperate, and
specifications that put the composer into the position to decide what
can be composed under which conditions. On these grounds, WCOP'96 led to
the following definition:

A component is a unit of composition with
contractually specified interfaces and explicit
context dependencies only. Components can be
deployed independently and are subject to
composition by third parties.

A problem often discussed in the context of COP are non-functional
requirements or quality attributes. Another key problem that results
from the dual nature of components between technology and markets are
the non-technical aspects of components, including marketing,
distribution, selection, licensing, and so on. While it is already hard
to establish functional properties under free composition of components,
non-functional and non-technical aspects seem quickly beyond
controlability.

One promising key approach to establishing composition-wide properties
of functional and non-functional nature is the use of component
frameworks. A component framework is a framework that itself is not
modified by components, but that accepts component instances as
"plug-ins". A component framework is thus a deliverable on its own that
can enforce (sub)system-wide properties of a component system. As such,
a component framework is sharply distinct from application frameworks
that are subject to (partial) whitebox reuse and that do not retain an
identity of their own in deployed systems.

TOPICS

Topics of interest to WCOP'99 include, but are not limited to:

* design methods for component frameworks
* interoperation among component frameworks
* properties, function, non-functional, or even non-technical that
CAN or that CANNOT be established by a component system
architecture based on (tiered) component frameworks
* use of selected component frameworks to reduce the set of
possible components in a market setting
* impact of component frameworks on independent evolution of
components and component-oriented systems
* domain-specific standards for component interoperability and their
impact on component frameworks and component framework design
* dynamic changes in the configuration (set of components in a
system): how can components be added, replaced and removed and
how can other components reconfigure themselves to cope with this
* adaptation of components and composition of frameworks
* programming language support for COP and component frameworks
in particular
* performance/efficiency of component-oriented implementations and
effects of component frameworks introducing a level of indirection
* impact of businesses on components and vice versa, packaging and
distribution of components and component frameworks
* criticism of the suggested component framework approach

SUBMISSIONS AND PARTICIPATION

To enable lively and productive discussions, attendance will be limited
to 25 participants. To participate in the workshop, acceptance of a
submitted position statement is required and at most two authors per
accepted submission can participate.

Participants are expected to have read all the accepted position papers,
which will be made available via WWW before the workshop.

All submissions will be formally reviewed. High-quality position
statements will be considered for publication in conjunction with
transcripts of workshop results. Authors of accepted papers need to
participate in the workshop.

Position statements should clearly state
* how they relate to the workshop theme,
* what particular problems they address,
* what solutions they envisage,
* and why the statement is expected to be relevant to both this
workshop and the community.

Statements should be four to eight pages (single-spaced A4 or letter)
long and state the author's name, affiliation, and contact. Submissions
should be sent to Wolfgang Weck; electronic submission of plain ASCII,
standard Postscript, or PDF via e-mail to <Wolfgang.Weck@abo.fi> is
strongly recommended.

IMPORTANT DATES

* Paper submissions: 5 April, 1999
* Notification of acceptance: 3 May, 1999
* Final papers ready: 24 May, 1999
* WCOP'99: 14 June, 1999

WORKSHOP CO-ORGANIZERS

Wolfgang Weck
Turku Centre for Computer Science
Abo Akademi University, Department of Computer Science
Lemminkainengatan 14A, FIN-20520 Turku, Finland
Net: Wolfgang.Weck@abo.fi
Web: http://www.abo.fi/~Wolfgang.Weck/

Jan Bosch
University of Karlskrona/Ronneby
Department of Computer Science
SoftCenter, S-372 25, Ronneby, Sweden
Net: Jan.Bosch@ide.hk-r.se
Web: http://www.ide.hk-r.se/~bosch

Clemens Szyperski
School of Computing Science
Queensland University of Technology
GPO Box 2434, Brisbane, Q4001, Australia
Net: c.szyperski@qut.edu.au
Web: http://www.fit.qut.edu.au/~szypersk/