USENIX - 4th Conference on Object-Oriented Technologies and Systems (COOTS)

4th Conference on Object-Oriented Technologies and Systems (COOTS)

April 27-30, 1998
Santa Fe, New Mexico, USA
Sponsored by the USENIX Association

Important Due Dates

Tutorial submissions:	December 2, 1997
Paper submissions:	December 2, 1997
Notification to authors:	January 7, 1998
Camera-ready papers:	March 17, 1998

Program Committee:

Program Chair: Joe Sventek, Hewlett-Packard Company
Tutorial Program Chair: Douglas C. Schmidt, Washington University
Ken Arnold, Sun Microsystems, Inc.
Gerald Baumgartner, Ohio State University
David Chappell, Chappell & Associates
Murthy Devarakonda, IBM
Daniel Edelson, IA Corporation
Jennifer Hamilton, Microsoft Corporation
Doug Lea, SUNY Oswego
Gary Leavens, Iowa State University
Dmitry Lenkov, Hewlett-Packard Co.
Jeff Magee, Imperial College of Science, Technology and Medicine
Scott Meyers, Software Development Consultant
Louise Moser, UC Santa Barbara
Ira Pohl, UC Santa Cruz
Rajendra Raj, Morgan Stanley & Company
Doug Schmidt, Washington University
Steve Vinoski, IONA Technologies, Inc.

Overview

The COOTS conference is intended to showcase advanced R&D work in object-oriented technologies and software systems. The conference emphasizes experimental research and experience gained by using object-oriented techniques and languages to build complex software systems that meet real world needs.

Tutorials

The COOTS conference will begin with two days of tutorials. We expect tutorial topics to include:

Distributed object systems (CORBA, DCOM, RMI, etc.)
Java and WWW programming languages
Object-oriented network programming
Design patterns for object-oriented systems
Concurrent object-oriented programming
Efficient and effective framework design
Evolution of ANSI/ISO C++ standardization
C++ Standard Template Library
Alternative object-oriented languages

Tutorial proposal submissions must be received by December 2, 1997. The preferred form of submission is via email to the Tutorial Chair, Doug Schmidt, schmidt@cs.wustl.edu. Tutorials selected for presentation at the conference will be announced by January 7, 1998.

Conference Topics

Two days of technical sessions will follow the tutorials. We seek papers describing original work concerning the design, implementation, experimentation, and use of object-oriented technologies. COOTS emphasizes advanced engineering aspects of object technology, focusing on experimental systems research and development on distributed objects, multimedia, operating systems, compiler technology, Java, and C++. While papers covering work in Java and C++ are strongly encouraged, we also invite submissions describing results and work in other object-oriented or object-based languagese.g. Smalltalk, Eiffel, Ada.

Potential topics include, but are not limited to:

Applications of, and experiences with, object-oriented technologies in various domains (Distributed systems, multimedia, real-time systems, financial services, human/computer interface, etc.)
Distributed object systems (CORBA, DCOM, RMI, the Web, etc.)
Implementations of commercial object infrastructures and reliable distributed objects (Orbix, NextStep, DCOM, DSOM, Isis/RDO, Distributed Smalltalk, Java ORBs, etc.)
Object-oriented programming language development environments and tools (C++, Java, Smalltalk, Modula-3, Eiffel, Ada95, etc.)
Content-oriented languages for programming in the WWW (Java, Python, Obliq, Phantom, etc.)
Interface description languages (OMG IDL, Microsoft IDL, etc.)
C++ standardization (STL, templates, implementation challenges)

Questions regarding a topic's relevance to the conference may be addressed to the program chair via electronic mail to sventek@hpl.hp.com. Conference Proceedings will be published by USENIX and provided free to technical session attendees; additional copies will be available for purchase from USENIX.

An award will be given for the best student paper at the conference.

In addition, based upon feedback solicited at the conference from attendees, the program committee will select up to five papers to be published in revised and expanded form in a special issue of a suitable journal. To help authors prepare these papers for publication, we will have a BOF session organized as a writer's workshop.

Advanced Topics Workshop

The conference will conclude with an Advanced Topics Workshop. Its goal is to provide an informal setting where you can exchange in-depth technical information with your peers. This workshop will be open to authors of accepted papers in the conference, as well as participants who submit position papers related to the workshop's topic. This topic will be determined several months before the conference and a Call for Position papers will be announced. Past USENIX C++ and COOTS conferences have held Advanced Topics Workshops on a variety of topics including: distributed object computing and implementation issues related to C++, distributed object computing over the WWW, and component-based software development.

What to Submit

Technical paper submissions must be received by December 2, 1997. Full papers should be 10 to 15 pages (around 5,000-6,000 words). In lieu of a full paper, authors may submit extended abstracts that discuss key ideas. Extended abstracts should be 5-7 pages long (about 2,500-3,500 words), not counting references and figures. The body of the extended abstract should be written in complete paragraphs. The objective of an extended abstract is to convince reviewers that a good, solid paper and presentation will result. Extended abstracts are intend to stimulate industrial participation and to allow publication of very current material.

All submissions will be judged on originality, relevance, and correctness. Authors of accepted submissions will be notified on January 7, 1998. Each accepted submission will be assigned a member of the program committee to shepherd it through the preparation of the final paper, if necessary. The assigned member will act as a conduit for feedback from the committee to the authors. Camera-ready final papers are due March 17, 1998.

Each submission must include a cover letter stating the paper title and authors along with the name of the person who will act as the contact to the program committee. Please include a surface mail address, daytime and evening phone number, an email address, and fax number for the contact person.

If you would like to receive detailed guidelines for submission and examples of extended abstracts, you may telephone USENIX at 510.528.8649, send email to cootsauthors@usenix.org or to the program chair Joe Sventek at sventek@hpl.hp.com.

The COOTS conference, like most conferences and journals, requires that papers not be submitted simultaneously to another conference or publication and that submitted papers not be previously or subsequently published elsewhere. Papers accompanied by "non-disclosure agreement" forms are not acceptable and will be returned to the author(s) unread. All submissions are held in the highest confidentiality prior to publication in the Proceedings, both as a matter of policy and in accord with the U.S. Copyright Act of 1976.

Where to Submit

Please send one copy of a full paper or an extended abstract to the program committee via one of the following methods. All submissions will be acknowledged.

The Absolutely Preferred Method: email (Postscript, PDF, Word or ASCII) to: cootspapers@usenix.org

Only as a Last Resort Method: postal delivery of 10 copies to:

USENIX COOTS Conference
c/o Joe Sventek
Hewlett-Packard Laboratories, MS 1U-3
1501 Page Mill Road
Palo Alto, CA 94304
Phone: 1.415.857.8664

Note: This method should only be used as a last resort as this complicates the review process, which must occur in a tight time frame over the December holidays. If you do use this method, you must email a message to cootspapers@usenix.org indicating that you've sent hard copy. The hard copy can be sent via overnight delivery services.

Registration Materials

Materials containing all details of the technical and tutorial programs, registration fees and forms, and hotel information will be available beginning in February, 1998 at the conference Web site: https://www.usenix.org/events/coots98. You may also contact USENIX at: