Workshop on Generative Techniques for Product Lines

International Conference on Software Engineering

Monday, May 14, 2001 in Toronto

The workshop report was added 12 September 2001.

Introduction

The workshop on Generative Techniques for Product Lines aims to bring together practitioners, researchers, academics, and students to discuss broadly the state-of-the-art of generators and their role in developing a product line.

Topics of interest, include

styles of generators, particularly the uses and limitations;

generation of code artifacts, such as application logic, UIs, database schemas, and middleware integration;

generation of non-code artifacts such as test cases, documentation, tutorials, and help systems;

capturing configuration knowledge;

designing and implementing DSLs using, for example, generators and extensible languages;

testing generic and generative models; and

synergy between components and generators.

The goal is to share experience, consolidate successful techniques, and identify open issues for future work in product lines.

Organizers

Greg Butler (gregb@cs.concordia.ca) is a Professor of Computer Science, Concordia University, Montreal. He works on frameworks, investigating methodologies for framework development and evolution.

Don Batory (batory@cs.utexas.edu) holds the David Bruton Centennial Professorship at The University of Texas at Austin. He has given numerous tutorials on Product-Line Architectures, Generators, and Reuse, and is an industry-consultant on product-line architectures.

Krzysztof Czarnecki (czarnecki@acm.org) is a researcher and consultant with the Software Technology Lab at DaimlerChrysler Research in Ulm, where he has been working on Generative Programming and its industrial application for over four years.

Ulrich Eisenecker (Ulrich.Eisenecker@t-online.de) is a professor of computer science at the University of Applied Sciences, Kaiserslautern. His work focuses on generative programming and object technology. He is also the editor of KOMPONENTEN-Forum, which is a permanent part of OBJEKTspektrum, a SIGS publication on object and component technology in Germany.

Position Papers

Potential participants are asked to submit a two-page (or longer) position paper detailing their experience with generative techniques, their perspective on one or more of the above topics, and their planned contribution to the workshop.

We seek concrete case studies, and potential topics of discussion in order to ground the workshop in real-world issues. So please include these in your position paper.

The workshop will aim to foster discussion and interaction rather than presentations. Presentations will serve to introduce a case study, provoke discussion by presenting a controversial point of view, or introduce new points of view.

Email your position paper to Greg Butler (gregb@cs.concordia.ca) by March 15, 2001. We prefer PDF format for position papers.

New We will be accepting position papers at least until the cutoff date for early registration, which is April 12, and are open to even last minute position papers in May. New

General Information

We would like to organize the discussions around the examples, by discussing the applicability, limitations, and strengths of each of the generative techniques within the context of the examples.

The domains for the examples should not be too large or complex: we need to grasp an overview of the domain, and one or two technical aspects of the product line in about 20-30 minutes, with perhaps more information coming out as prompted by the discussion. It is preferable that the technical aspects for discussion relate to generative techniques and product lines in general, and that they not be too domain-specific.

Please register for the conference as early as possible. ICSE 2001 web site

Dissemination of Results

This website will collect the position papers, case studies, and presentations as well as a report on the discussions at the workshop.

Particpants and Position Papers

generative programming, Francis Bordeleau, Carleton University, Ottawa, Canada.

Cascaded Refactoring: Transformations of Models for Product Lines, Greg Butler, Concordia University, Canada.

Architecture-Oriented Programming Using FRED, Markku Hakala, Juha Hautmaki, et al, Tampere University of Technology, Finland.

A Glimpse on Generative Programming from the Operating Systems Perspective, Markus Pizka, Technische Universitaet Muenchen, Germany.

A Proposal for a Code generator Based on XML and Code Templates, Andreas Rausch, Technische Universitaet Muenchen, Germany.

Proposed ICSE Activities

Morning: Presentation of Backgrounds, Positions, and Open Challenges by each participant.

Morning: A demo of FRED.

Afternoon: Joint discussion on selected open challenges, with aim to either resolve them, or propose a course of action for them.