Workshop on Comprehension of Complex SystemsCoCoS 2017

The sheer complexity and emergent behaviors of large scale systems make it impossible for people to completely understand them without the aid of specific tools. This is especially the case as systems are increasingly developed using advanced composition technologies such as aspect-orientation and dynamic script languages. Those modularity technologies enable the creation and application of powerful abstractions, which yields significant benefits in terms of reuse and separation of concerns. But those same abstractions, in languages, middleware, and models, also hide important system properties.

This compounds the problem of comprehending run-time behavior in terms of original design concepts that have been abstracted away (for example debugging AO programs, or diagnosing violations of performance service-level agreements). Wider adoption of advanced modularity technologies depends on tools to assist developers in understanding the run-time behavior of complex composed systems. This workshop aims to create a dialog on the problem of program comprehension and its relation to modularity in this wider context.

Accepted Papers

Call for Papers

Abstract

The sheer complexity and emergent behaviors of large scale systems make it impossible for people to completely understand them without the aid of specific tools. This is especially the case as systems are increasingly developed using advanced composition technologies such as aspect-orientation and dynamic script languages. Those modularity technologies enable the creation and application of powerful abstractions, which yields significant benefits in terms of reuse and separation of concerns. But those same abstractions, in languages, middleware, and models, also hide important system properties.

This compounds the problem of comprehending run-time behavior in terms of original design concepts that have been abstracted away (for example debugging AO programs, or diagnosing violations of performance service-level agreements). Wider adoption of advanced modularity technologies depends on tools to assist developers in understanding the run-time behavior of complex composed systems. This workshop aims to create a dialog on the problem of program comprehension and its relation to modularity in this wider context.

Topics

Examples of topics targeted by this workshop include, but are not limited to:

• Static and dynamic tools for coding, navigating, debugging, profiling, etc.
• Language-specific and abstraction-specific visualizations
• Tools for comprehension of heterogeneous systems
• Empirical evaluations of tools
• Generic tools, supporting multiple languages or abstractions
• Domain-specific tools
• Techniques and properties of language design for increased comprehension

Submissions

We welcome papers that identify new problems or report work in progress. A good CoCoS submission should be interesting, concrete, and clear. It does not need to describe a complete solution. CoCoS accepts both regular papers (up to 6 pages) and position papers (up to 2 pages). The required submission format is specified under: Instructions for Authors. Submissions can be made through HotCRP. Accepted papers will appear in the workshop proceedings and published in the ACM Digital Library.

Participant Preparation

We will allow participation in the workshop without an accepted or even submitted paper, to generate interest in the topic of the workshop. All participants of the workshop are encouraged to formulate a position statement of maximal one page ACM style. Particularly, authors of papers that are not accepted for publication in the proceedings will be encouraged to shorten their paper into a position statement. These position statements are not reviewed and not published in the workshop proceedings, but they will be made available on the workshop’s homepage before the workshop.

Along with the paper submission, authors are also asked to submit discussion topics. The topics can include the authors’ experiences, design or implementation challenges, asking for opinions, and anything that the authors think worth discussion. The organizers will select some representative topics and use them to structure the discussion sessions. All accepted papers and discussion topics will also be published in advance on the workshop homepage. Participants are furthermore encouraged to read all position statements and accepted papers before the workshop.

For fairness reasons, all submitted papers should conform to the formatting instructions. Submissions that violate these instructions may be rejected without review.

Submission Site

Please take a moment to read the instructions below before using the submission site.

Concurrent Submissions

Papers must describe unpublished work that is not currently submitted for publication elsewhere as described by SIGPLAN’s Republication Policy. Submitters should also be aware of ACM’s Policy and Procedures on Plagiarism.

Format

Submissions should use the ACM SIGPLAN Conference acmart Format with ‘sigplan’ Subformat, 10 point font, using the font family Times New Roman. All submissions should be in PDF format. If you use LaTeX or Word, please use the provided ACM SIGPLAN acmart Templates provided here. Otherwise, follow the author instructions.

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 with the LaTeX \settopmatter{printfolios=true} command. 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.

Publication (Digital Library Early Access Warning)

AUTHORS TAKE NOTE: The official publication date is the date the proceedings are made available in the ACM Digital Library. This date may be up to two weeks prior to the first day of the conference. The official publication date affects the deadline for any patent filings related to published work.