8 July, 1996
WCOP'96 seeks position papers on the important currently emerging field of component-oriented programming (COP). COP has recently been described as the natural extension of object-oriented programming to cater for the special needs of independently extensible systems. The most prominent examples of such systems are constructed around compound document models and rest on underlying object models such as SOM or COM.
The immense divergence of approaches in SOM versus COM (SOM uses inheritance, COM uses aggregation and forwarding) hints at the large number of unresolved issues "under the hood". On the one hand, objects in the small are now well understood and recent work on frameworks and patterns promises to quite well support development of closed applications, based on semi-finished products.
On the other hand, the notion of independently extensible systems has so far not been successfully addressed. In an independently extensible system, extensions to a base system are provided by mutually independent vendors. The extensions are then combined, i.e. integrated, by the client. Such systems are becoming reality with the emergence of OLE 2 or OpenDoc. Nevertheless, their methodological and theoretical underpinnings have not yet been sufficiently addressed.
This workshop seeks to collect positions on these important yet only partially understood matters and aims at defining some key terms. Topics of interest include, but are not limited to:
To enable lively and productive discussions, attendance will be limited to 20 participants. In order to attend, submission of a position statement is required. All submissions will be formally reviewed. High-quality position statements will be considered for publication in conjunction with transcripts of workshop results. Authors of accepted papers need to sign a restricted copyright release form and participate in the workshop.
Position statements should clearly state how they relate to the workshop theme, what particular problems they address, what solutions they envisage, and why the statement is expected to be relevant to both this workshop and the community. Statements should be between 4 and 8 pages (single-spaced A4) long, state the author's name, affiliation, and contact. Submission via email (plain ASCII or standard Postscript) to one of the two organizers is strongly recommended.
Note: This workshop and the Workshop on Composability (9 July, 1996, same venue) have some overlap. Composability of objects focuses on the one specific issue of composition of objects, the conditions of sane composition, types of composition, etc, with a particular interest in the demands and characteristics of object models that truly support composition. Component-oriented programming considers the full breadth of component-oriented technology, including aspects and interaction of packaging and distribution, higher-level information hiding, dynamic composition. The workshop on COP will also consider components in the context of document-oriented systems, such as OpenDoc and OLE 2.
Prof. Dr. Clemens
Szyperski
School of Computing Science
Queensland University of Technology
GPO Box 2434, Brisbane Q 4001
Australia
Tel: (+61 7) 3864 5222
Fax: (+61 7) 3864 1801
Net: c.szyperski@qut.edu.au
Web: www.fit.qut.edu.au/~szypersk
Dr. Cuno Pfister
Oberon microsystems,
Inc.
Technoparkstrasse 1
8005 Zürich
Switzerland
Tel: (+41 1) 445 1751
Fax: (+41 1) 445 1752
Net: pfister@oberon.ch
Web: www.oberon.c