J.Purchase@cs.ucl.ac.uk (Jan Purchase) (05/05/91)
***** CALL FOR PARTICIPATION ***** ECOOP'91 WORKSHOP ON EXCEPTION HANDLING AND OBJECT-ORIENTED PROGRAMMING July 1991 Geneva, Switzerland As object-oriented languages become more sophisticated, the problem of coping with exceptional situations occurring at run-time becomes more complex and the need for appropriate tools and language mechanisms to detect, handle and correct errors more urgent. Such tools and mechanisms help to facilitate software reliability, reusability, readability and debugging. Currently, many exception handling systems have been, or are being, integrated into object-oriented languages (e.g., C++, Clos+CommonLisp, Eiffel, Smalltalk). These systems differ in many important respects including: handler definition policies, knowledge representation and handling mechanisms. In addition, many different proposals on the subject have been published recently in literature pertaining to object oriented systems (two at the ECOOP/OOPSLA'90 conference alone). Some of the problems and ideas expressed in connected fields, such as: the integration of atypical classes into inheritance hierarchies required in database systems or semantic networks and the management of exceptional cases in information systems or user interfaces, have never before been compared with research into exception handling. We feel that such a comparison would be mutually beneficial. It would thus be interesting for anyone with opinions on (and the relevant experience of) designing or using exception handling systems, to discuss their point of view. That is the purpose of this workshop. All following topics are relevant and could be discussed: * Proposal of new systems. * Comparisons of existing systems. * Handling policies. Should exceptions be handled at the class level, at the method level, at the instruction level? Where and how are default handlers defined? What exception propagation mechanism should be adopted? * Relationship between exception handling, software quality, modularity and reusability. How can we ensure modularity while invoking handlers? How should objects interfaces be modified so that users of object-oriented libraries be able to anticipate exceptions cases? What should be the scope (and extent) of handlers? How can exceptions improve program readability and thus potential for reuse? * Failures, Object consistency. How can we maintain object consistency with a termination model? How can object consistency be ensured when both resumption and termination are allowed? Are database techniques for maintaining consistency of data relevant for object-oriented languages? * Reflection and Language Design How can the use of object-oriented programming improve the expressive power of exception handling systems? Can exception mechanisms be retro-fitted into object oriented languages effectively? * Specifications What role do formal specification have to play in object oriented exception mechanisms? What are the benefits and costs of behavioural exceptions as opposed to state-based exceptions? Could exceptions be used as annotations for a behavioural (or semantic) browser? How can the definition of exception cases be combined with semantic or axiomatic specifications? * Exception handling and concurrent object-oriented languages. What extra difficulties does parallelism or distributed processing introduce? * Implementation issues. Can exception mechanisms be implemented within object-oriented languages so that they do not slow down normal execution? Is there a case for disabling exceptions when software is released? * User experiences. * Connections between exception handling systems and debugging tools. Organization ------------ The workshop will be divided into topic-directed sessions, with significant time for questions after each presentation, and more general discussions on issues that will appear to raise a particular interest. People wishing to participate are invited to submit an extended abstract explaining their contribution to the field and the relevance of their work to one or more of the proposed topics. N.B. --- Attendance of the workshop is not limited to these who have registered as ECOOP delegates. A selection of the best positional papers and a workshop report will be submitted for publication to ACM "OOPS Messenger". Submission Details ------------------ Send three copies of extended abstract before June 1, 1991 to: Christophe Dony Rank Xerox France & LITP, Universite Paris VI 4 place Jussieu, 75oo5 Paris (France). Phone: (33)-1-44277030. Email: chd@rxf.ibp.fr. Important dates --------------- June 1 : Deadline for receiving extended abstracts. June 15 : Notification of invitation or rejection. Workshop Organizers ------------------- For further information, contact any of the workshop organizers Christophe Dony Rank-Xerox France - LITP (IBP) Universite Paris VI chd@rxf.ibp.fr Jan A. Purchase Computer Science Dept., University College London, Gower St., London WC1E 6BT Email: J.Purchase@cs.ucl.ac.uk Tel: +44 (0)71 387 7050 x3701 Russel L. Winder, Computer Science Dept., University College London, Gower St., London WC1E 6BT Email: R.Winder@cs.ucl.ac.uk Tel: +44 (0)71 380 7293