1st workshop on Program Comprehension through Dynamic Analysis
 PCODA 2005

Co-located with the 12th WCRE, November 10th, 2005, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA

Program chairs

 Orla Greevy
Software Composition Group

Institut fur Informatik

und angewandte Mathematik

University of Bern

Switzerland

greevy@iam.unibe.ch

 

Abdelwahab Hamou-Lhadj

School of Information

Technology and Engineering

University of Ottawa

Canada

ahamou@site.uottawa.ca

 

Andy Zaidman

Lab On Re Engineering

Department of Mathematics and Computer Science

University of Antwerp

Belgium

Andy.Zaidman@ua.ac.be


Program Committee

Serge Demeyer
University of Antwerp, Belgium
Stephane Ducasse
University of Savoie, France
Markus Gälli
University of Berne, Switzerland
Orla Greevy
University of Berne, Switzerland
Abdelwahab Hamou-Lhadj
University of Ottawa, Canada
Laura Ponisio
University of Berne, Switzerland
Timothy Lethbridge
University of Ottawa, Canada
Andy Zaidman
University of Antwerp, Belgium
 

Important dates

Submissions
 1st October 2005

Notification
 14th October 2005

Camera ready

 25th October 2005

Workshop

 10th November 2005

Overview
Without consistent or adequately complete documentation, maintainers are faced with the inevitable problem of understanding how the system is implemented prior to undertaking any maintenance task. Research into the discipline of program comprehension aims to reduce the impact of this problem. Studies have shown that software engineers tend to spend up to 50% of their time trying to comprehend the structure of a software system.
PCODA focuses on program comprehension techniques that rely specifically on dynamic analysis.

Schedule
    Click here.

Proceedings
    Download here (6.2 MB)

Pictures from the workshop
    Click here.

Topics
Topics of interest include, but are not restricted to, the following:

  • Program comprehension models

    • Theories and models for software comprehension based on dynamic analysis
    • Program comprehension processes and strategies involving dynamic analysis techniques
    • Research methodologies
  • Techniques and tools
    • Applications of dynamic analysis techniques to program comprehension
    • Strengths and limitations of existing dynamic analysis techniques
    • Trace analysis and exploration techniques
    • Techniques for reducing the large size of run-time information
    • Hybrid analyses that involve both static and dynamic analysis
    • Dynamic analysis tools with an emphasis on program comprehension
  • Evaluation Techniques
    • Criteria for evaluating dynamic analysis techniques
    • Experiments and case studies with a focus on program comprehension using dynamic analysis
    • Empirical effectiveness studies

 

 

The workshop will be 1/2 day, discussion-oriented. Afterwards, each participant will be asked to formulate a short summary of the workshop (maximum 250 words), highlighting points of interest of his or her research. These summaries will be posted on a website (the URL will be determined later), so that possible collaborations will become visible.

Be standard. There exists a lot of work on reengineering, which may give rise to some terminology conflicts. We encourage people to use the reengineering taxonomy defined in (E. J. Chikofsky and J. H. C. II. Reverse engineering and design recovery: A taxonomy, IEEE Software, 7(1):13–17, 1990.)

Be electronic. Submit your position paper in HTML, postcript or PDF (preferably), so that we can collect all of the submissions on a website. A separate abstract including the e-mail addresses of the authors and URLs of their home pages MUST be submitted in HTML. Submit everything by e-mail to both of the two following e-mail addresses andy.zaidman@ua.ac.be and greevy@iam.unibe.ch

Be short. Propose only one idea. We all know that you are a quality researcher with plenty of good ideas. Only, we have limited resources and we must focus. Please keep all position papers under five pages.

Be innovative. It is okay to propose a recent idea that still has some unfinished sides to it. It is supposed to be a WORKshop, not a mini-conference. If you want to propose a crazy idea, introduce it in an extended abstract (1 page).

Be a rebel. Neglect these guidelines if you feel that your idea needs a special treatment in some way.