[eclipse-announce] 2nd CfC Plug-in-Based Software Development

[Johannes Mayer <jmayer@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

                         CALL FOR CHAPTERS

                PLUG-IN-BASED SOFTWARE DEVELOPMENT

A book edited by Johannes Mayer
and published by Springer-Verlag (subject to final approval)


MOTIVATION

Today's software systems are getting more and more complex. And the
only way to cope with complexity is abstraction. Therefore, systems are
decomposed into components which can be developed in parallel. However,
there are important drawbacks of this approach:

- The composition of components, which is necessary after their
  development, is a quite complex process.
- After the composition, the system is fixed. Replacing or adding
  components requires new composition.

Plug-ins are well-known--especially in the context of Web browsers.
For example, PDF documents are usually displayed within the browser window
by means of a browser plug-in. Plug-ins are pieces of software which are
not standalone and can be added to a system providing suitable interfaces.
Traditionally, plug-ins have been used to add functionality to software
systems, such as Web browsers.

The NetBeans and the Eclipse project were one of the first to extensively
use plug-ins for the development of a huge software system, namely the
respective IDEs. Nearly everything is a plug-in--besides a small core.

Plug-in-based software development can be employed to overcome the above
mentioned problems. A software system built in such a way is able to
compose itself, finding its plug-in components on its own. It is only
necessary to combine the needed plug-ins, which still requires some
configuration management. The system is also able to cope with missing
components which results in missing functionality. Furthermore, plug-ins
can easily be added or removed at any time--even at runtime. This results
in a very flexible system.


BRIEF DESCRIPTION AND OBJECTIVES

This book covers all aspects of plug-in-based software development
and summarizes current research and practice in this area. Significant
progress has been achieved on a conceptual as well as on a technical level
in this area in the last few years--not at last through the contributions
of the NetBeans and the Eclipse projects. Furthermore, problems and open
issues in the field of plug-in-based software development are outlined.
The development of plug-in-based software differs in several aspects from
the development of component-based software. These differences need to be
outlined to identify problems not encountered in component-based
development.


TARGET AUDIENCE

Target audience are researchers and professionals that want to learn
about plug-in-based software development. They will profit from the
detailed description of all facets of plug-in-based development.

Another target audience are researchers and professionals working in
the field of plug-in-based software development. The summary of the
achievements together with the problems and open issues outlined will
give clear insight into the state of the art in plug-in-based software
development and direct further research in this area.


STRUCTURE OF THE BOOK

The book will be divided into the following three parts.

Part I: Conceptual Foundations

The first part covers conceptual issues of plug-in-based software
development. These include the definition of plug-ins, patterns for
plug-in-based development, ontologies, formal aspects, organizational and
managerial issues, and so on.

Part II: Technical Aspects

The second part deals with technical issues of plug-in-based software
development, such as frameworks for plug-in-based applications, techniques
for plug-in discovery and loading, among others.

Part III: Applications

The third part is twofold. Firstly, other research areas such as
software product lines make use of the plug-in concept. Researchers from
these areas can describe their experiences with plug-in-based software
development. Secondly, experts from industry can describe projects in
which plug-in-based development has been employed and summarize their
experience.


SUBMISSION DETAILS

Chapter proposal (in PDF format) have to consist of an extended abstract
of about two pages and a list of contents of the proposed chapter. Authors
should clearly point out to which part of the book they want to contribute
to. Submission is electronically via email to the editor.

Full chapters must be prepared according to the Springer guidelines
available at
http://www2.springeronline.com/sgw/cda/frontpage/0,11855,5-40006-0-0-0,00.html
in LaTeX format.


IMPORTANT DATES

Chapter proposals:			December 31, 2004
Notification of authors:		January 31, 2005
Full chapter submission:		March 31, 2005
Notification of authors:		May 31, 2005
Submission of revised chapters:		June 30, 2005


EDITOR

Johannes Mayer
Abteilung Angewandte Informationsverarbeitung
Universität Ulm
Ulm, Germany
Email: jmayer@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

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Dr. Johannes Mayer                  E-Mail: jmayer@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Dept. of Applied Information Processing          Phone: +49-731-50-23573
Dept. of Stochastics                               FAX: +49-731-50-23975
University of Ulm           http://www.mathematik.uni-ulm.de/sai/jmayer/
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