Lambda the Ultimate

7th Workshop on the Evaluation and Usability of Programming Languages and Tools (PLATEAU)

Co-located with SPLASH 2016
Amsterdam, Netherlands

PLATEAU 2016
http://2016.splashcon.org/track/plateau2016

CALL FOR PAPERS

Programming languages exist to enable programmers to develop software effectively. But how efficiently programmers can write software depends on the usability of the languages and tools that they develop with. The aim of this workshop is to discuss methods, metrics and techniques for evaluating the usability of languages and language tools. The supposed benefits of such languages and tools cover a large space, including making programs easier to read, write, and maintain; allowing programmers to write more flexible and powerful programs; and restricting programs to make them more safe and secure.

PLATEAU gathers the intersection of researchers in the programming language, programming tool, and human-computer interaction communities to share their research and discuss the future of evaluation and usability of programming languages and tools.

TOPICS

Some particular areas of interest are:

empirical studies of programming languages
methodologies and philosophies behind language and tool evaluation
software design metrics and their relations to the underlying language
user studies of language features and software engineering tools
visual techniques for understanding programming languages
critical comparisons of programming paradigms
tools to support evaluating programming languages
psychology of programming
domain specific language (e.g. database languages, security/privacy languages, architecture description languages) usability and evaluation

PLATEAU encourages submissions of three types of papers:

Research and position papers: We encourage papers that describe work-in-progress or recently completed work based on the themes and goals of the workshop or related topics, report on experiences gained, question accepted wisdom, raise challenging open problems, or propose speculative new approaches. We will accept two types of papers: research papers up to 8 pages in length; and position papers up to 2 pages in length.

Hypotheses papers: Hypotheses papers explicitly identify beliefs of the research community or software industry about how a programming language, programming language feature, or programming language tool affects programming practice. Hypotheses can be collected from mailing lists, blog posts, paper introductions, developer forums, or interviews. Papers should clearly document the source(s) of each hypothesis and discuss the importance, use, and relevance of the hypotheses on research or practice. In addition, we invite language designers to share some of the usability reasoning that influenced their work. These will serve as an important first step in advancing our understanding of how language design supports programmers.Papers may also, but are not required to, review evidence for or against the hypotheses identified. Hypotheses papers can be up to 4 pages in length.

Submission site: PLATEAU papers should be submitted via HotCRP.
https://plateau2016.hotcrp.com/

Format: Submissions should use the SIGPLAN Proceedings Format (http://www.sigplan.org/Resources/Author/), 10 point font. Note that by default the SIGPLAN Proceedings Format produces papers in 9 point font. If you are formatting your paper using LaTeX, you will need to set the 10pt option in the \documentclass command. If you are formatting your paper using Word, you may wish to use the provided Word template that supports this font size. Please include page numbers in your submission. Setting the preprint option in the LaTeX \documentclass command generates page numbers. Please also ensure that your submission is legible when printed on a black and white printer. In particular, please check that colors remain distinct and font sizes are legible.

All types of papers will be published in the ACM Digital Library at the authors’ discretion.

KEYNOTE

Alan Blackwell
Professor
Computer Laboratory
University of Cambridge
Cambridge, United Kingdom
http://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/~afb21/

DATES
Submission deadline: August 1, 2016

PROGRAM COMMITTEE
Kelly Blincoe, Auckland University of Technology, New Zealand
Jeff Carver, University of Alabama, USA
Kathi Fisler, Worcester Polytechnic Institute, USA
Tudor Gîrba, Independent, Switzerland
Stefan Hanenberg, University of Duisburg-Essen, Germany
Andrew Ko, University of Washington, USA
Brad Myers, Carnegie Mellon University, USA
Peter-Michael Osera, Grinnell College, USA
Janet Siegmund, University of Passau, Germany
Jeremy Singer, University of Glasgow, United Kingdom
Emma Söderberg, Google, USA
Andreas Stefik, University of Nevada, Las Vegas, USA
Ian Utting, University of Kent, United Kingdom
Philip Wadler, University of Edinburgh, United Kingdom

ORGANIZERS
Craig Anslow, Middlesex University, UK
Thomas LaToza, George Mason University, USA
Joshua Sunshine, Carnegie Mellon University, USA