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The European conference situation in the general area of software science has
long been considered unsatisfactory. A fairly large number of small and mediumsized
conferences and workshops take place on an irregular basis, competing for
high-quality contributions and for enough attendees to make them financially
viable. Discussions aiming at a consolidation have been underway since at least
1992, with concrete planning beginning in summer 1994 and culminating in a
public meeting at TAPSOFT'95 in Aarhus.
On the basis of a broad consensus, it was decided to establish a single annual
federated spring conference in the slot that was then occupied by TAPSOFT
and CAAP/ESOP/CC, comprising a number of existing and new conferences
and covering a spectrum from theory to practice. ETAPS'98, the first instance
of the European Joint Conferences on Theory and Practice of Software, is taking
place this year in Lisbon. It comprises five conferences (FoSSaCS, FASE, ESOP,
CC, TACAS), four workshops (ACoS, VISUAL, WADT, CMCS), seven invited
lectures, and nine tutorials.
The events that comprise ETAPS address various aspects of the system development
process, including specification, design, implementation, analysis and
improvement. The languages, methodologies and tools which support these activities
are all well within its scope. Different blends of theory and practice are
represented, with an inclination towards theory with a practical motivation on
one hand and soundly-based practice on the other. Many of the issues involved
in software design apply to systems in general, including hardware systems, and
the emphasis on software is not intended to be exclusive.
ETAPS is a natural development from its predecessors. It is a loose confederation
in which each event retains its own identity, with a separate programme
committee and independent proceedings. Its format is open-ended, allowing it to
grow and evolve as time goes by. Contributed talks and system demonstrations
are in synchronized parallel sessions, with invited lectures in plenary sessions.
Two of the invited lectures are reserved for "unifying" talks on topics of interest
to the whole range of ETAPS attendees. The aim of cramming all this activity
into a single one-week meeting is to create a strong magnet for academic and
industrial researchers working on topics within its scope, giving them the opportunity
to learn about research in related areas, and thereby to foster new
and existing links between work in areas that have hitherto been addressed in
separate meetings. |
