MechAnisms for SPEcialization, Generalization and inHerItanceMASPEGHI 2015

MASPEGHI 2015 will continue the discussion about mechanisms for managing and manipulating specialization and generalization hierarchies: single and multiple inheritance of interfaces or implementation, support for specialization/generalization, mixins, traits, delegation, virtual classes, etc. We are concerned with both the design of inheritance mechanisms, and the difficulties of implementing and using it.

These concerns are reflected differently by disciplines such as databases, knowledge discovery and representation, modeling and design methods, and object-based programming languages. The emphasis is sometimes on modeling the problem domain, and sometimes on organizing the computational artifacts that simulate the domain.
For example, in knowledge representation, the modeling role of classes is primary: hierarchies are repositories of validated knowledge, which support the acquisition of new knowledge. In analysis and design, the purpose of the hierarchy shifts as the design matures from modeling to organizing. Hence, modern OOA&D methods support the gradual evolution of class hierarchies from one use to the other.

Despite the wide use of specialization hierarchies, there is no standard methodology for constructing and maintaining them independently from the domains that they represent and the artifacts that they organize. This workshop will provide a forum for researchers from a variety of domains to learn from each other and work together to develop such a methodology.

All news about the workshop will be posted on the mailing list, which all interested persons are invited to join.

Accepted Papers

Call for Papers

Prospective participants are invited to submit either (1) position papers of up to 2 pages in length, or (2) technical papers of up to 5 pages in length.

Papers should be prepared in the 10-point variant of the ACM SIGPLAN format. They should clearly indicate how they relate to the topic of the workshop, as described in this call, and should be submitted electronically using this EasyChair link.

New (19 March): For position papers, append the following to the title: (position paper) .

At least one coauthor of each accepted paper must be prepared to attend the workshop in the case of acceptance, so that the paper can be presented and discussed.

Reviewing, Selection and Publication

Submitted papers will be reviewed by the program committee (position papers only lightly) to ensure relevance to the workshop objectives and acceptable technical quality. Since this is a workshop, the selection of papers will be based especially on novelty and the ability to stimulate discussion. on technical quality.

Papers will be selected according to the following criteria:

• The paper must show that the author(s) have a good knowledge of the topics proposed for the workshop and that they can contribute to the discussions.
• It should focus on one or more of the topics mentioned in this call.
• It should address open issues, focus on new speculative approaches, or take up a controversial issue.
• It should not attempt to be a conference paper, but rather a paper that poses questions that may be discussed.

In addition to these criteria, to encourage fruitful discussions, the selection of papers will be influenced by the need to keep the workshop suitably focused.

New: Authors concentrating on implementation issues should consider submitting to the ICOOOLPS workshop as an alternative. It will take place on Monday, 6 July, so interested persons can attend both workshops.

Accepted papers will be made available on the workshop website. Accepted technical papers will also be published in the workshop proceedings in the ACM Digital Library, unless the authors wish otherwise. Please note that a paper will not be included in the proceedings, nor referenced on the web-site, nor mentioned in a possible post-workshop report, unless at least one of the authors attends the workshop.

The authors of very good papers will be encouraged to publish enhanced versions in Journal of Object Technology or another appropriate forum.

Preparation and Work Organization

We aim for 25 - 30 participants, most of whom will be an author on an accepted paper, or a member of the committee. Our intention is that the workshop will not be a mini-conference, but discussions will be emphasized. In order to achieve this objective, every participant is requested to thoroughly read all accepted papers, if possible. We are considering appointing, for each paper, one or two “discussants”, who would be prepared to initiate the discussion by means of relevant questions.

We will decide on the final form and organization of the workshop later, and we will inform about that on this website and the mailing list. We are open to suggestions from the participants in advance, and can be flexible also during the workshop.

Predecessor workshops

This workshop continues the series of MASPEGHI workshops (at different conferences) and the Inheritance Workshop (at ECOOP 2002). Information about these workshops (name - associated conference - number of participants (approximate) - URL):

• Maspeghi 2002 - OOIS 2002 - 15 http://www.lirmm.fr/~huchard/MASPEGHI/

• Inheritance Workshop 2002 - ECOOP 2002 - 27 - http://www.cs.au.dk/~eernst/inhws/

• Maspeghi 2003 - ASE 2003 - 14 - http://www.iro.umontreal.ca/~maspeghi/ (not working now)

• Maspeghi 2004 - ECOOP 2004 - 22 - http://www.i3s.unice.fr/maspeghi2004/

• Maspeghi 2010 - ECOOP 2010 - 30 (combined with ICOOOLPS 2010) - http://www.i3s.unice.fr/maspeghi2010/

• Maspeghi 2013 - ECOOP 2013 - 21 (combined with COOMPL 2013) - http://www.cs.jyu.fi/maspeghi2013/

(Revised 31 March 2015)