2nd Call for Participation: 2nd JML Spec-a-thon: JML^2, 18-20 November 2009, Dublin, Ireland

View: New views
1 Messages — Rating Filter:   Alert me  

2nd Call for Participation: 2nd JML Spec-a-thon: JML^2, 18-20 November 2009, Dublin, Ireland

by Joseph Kiniry :: Rate this Message:

Reply to Author | View Threaded | Show Only this Message

                2nd Call for Participation
                2nd JML Spec-a-thon: JML^2
                   18-20 November 2009
                University College Dublin
                     Dublin, Ireland

There are only two and a half weeks to go before the 2nd JML
Spec-a-thon takes place in Dublin.  We have 13 registered attendees so
far, but have room for more!  The website has been updated with
location information on housing, transport, and more.

What new news is there with regards to the Dublin Spec-a-thon?  How
about a nice dinner out on Thursday night followed by an Irish pub
visit?  Perhaps there will be goodies given away to attendees
appropriate for Irish Winters?  And what about special tutorial
sessions for attendees who are not JML addicts?  All this and more,
available to you, interested attendee, with no registration costs!

Best,
Joe and Dan

---

Here is a revised version of the original announcement, as a reminder:

What, you may ask, is a JML Spec-a-thon? It's a gathering of JML
researchers and users for intense collaboration on JML
development. This is the second of what we expect to be a series of
approximately semi-annual events.  It is a continuation of the
inaugural Spec-a-thon held on 26-28 May 2009 at the University of
Washington Tacoma, and is similar in spirit to the JML Winter School
that was held in 2008, but is longer, more intense, and geared more
toward output production and goal setting than toward education. As
part of this Spec-a-thon, there will also be a "keynote"-like talk
open to to the public at UCD.

The main focus for all Spec-a-thons is on writing good, usable
specifications for many of the modern Java core classes that presently
lack them.  In OpenJML, we finally have a JML compiler that can take
full advantage of generics and the other new language features
introduced over the last several years, but the vast majority of
available specs are still for Java 1.4 classes, lacking both generics
and new APIs.  Addressing this situation will help make JML more
attractive to developers and more suitable for use in coursework.

The last Spec-a-thon had several super-short talks given by
participants in the morning on their current work, available tools,
techniques in specification writing, and more.  The balance of the
day, and often into the night, participants worked as individuals and
in small groups on new tools, specifications, and documentation, gave
tutorials to each other, and more.  For some participants, some of
each day also focused on "pair specification writing," which is
basically a wacky combination of an OpenBSD Hackathon and formal
methods "extreme programming".

A secondary focus of Spec-a-thons is on setting community-wide goals
for the coming year in JML-related tool development and research.  The
second half of 2009 has been a great time for JML, with the Inaugural
Spec-a-thon in late May and the Dagstuhl seminar in July. Continued
face-to-face coordination of the goals of the JML community can only
be helpful.

The Inaugural and Second JML Spec-a-thons are supported by a Formal
Methods Europe (FME) Small Projects grant, as well as local research
grants at University College Dublin.  There is also an opportunity for
students and researchers involved with COST Action IC0701 "Formal
Verification of Object-Oriented Software" to participate using COST
funds.  Participants in this latter category will be obligated to
attend a full week of Spec-a-thon activities due to funding agency
restrictions, I.e., we will actually be starting Spec-a-thon
activities on Monday, 16 November.

While this level of support is not sufficient for us to cover meals
and lodging for the event for all participants, it is enough for us 
to provide small travel subsidies to several attendees, as we did 
for the inaugural Spec-a-thon. This is designed primarily to allow 
interested graduate students, and those who otherwise might not 
be able to travel to the Dublin area, to attend.

We have post detailed information about the event on the JML 
Spec-a-thons website

Email jmlspecs-specathon@... for more information
about travel subsidies and registration; we hope to see you there!

Participants in the inaugural Spec-a-thon are encouraged to pipe up
with their quick reflections on the event.

-Dan Zimmerman and Joe Kiniry


------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Come build with us! The BlackBerry(R) Developer Conference in SF, CA
is the only developer event you need to attend this year. Jumpstart your
developing skills, take BlackBerry mobile applications to market and stay
ahead of the curve. Join us from November 9 - 12, 2009. Register now!
http://p.sf.net/sfu/devconference
_______________________________________________
JMLspecs-ESCJava mailing list
JMLspecs-ESCJava@...
https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/jmlspecs-escjava