TOOLS Europe 2000

by Patrik Persson
Computer Science Department
Lund University

I visited the 33rd international conference on Technology of Object-Oriented Languages and Systems, TOOLS Europe 2000, in Mont Saint Michel, France, June 2000. Beside TOOLS Europe, sister conferences TOOLS USA, TOOLS Pacific, and TOOLS Eastern Europe are given annually. Hence this is a major conference in the field of object-oriented software engineering. There is also a fair industrial presence.

Object-oriented programming (OOP) has traditionally been restricted to desktop (and larger) computers, with graphical user interfaces as the "killer application". However, as the capacity and complexity of embedded system increase, several people (including myself) are working on OOP for embedded systems.

I was very happy to see that this community shows a growing interest in embedded and real-time software, emphasized by recent Java-related techiques such as Jini. Beside a session devoted to the subject (where I presented the paper "An Interactive Environment for Real-Time Software Development"), there were tutorials on, e.g., "Design Patterns for Objects in Limited Memory".

The papers presented were on the practical, industry related side; there are other conference with stronger academic, theoretical OOP material. I assume this focus stems from the industrial direction of the conference as a whole.

A good conference requires good opportunities to meet, mingle, and discuss with interesting people. An important component in this is the social programme. The french kitchen did well and offered nice lunches, great dinners, and good wine; there were plenty of opportunities to mingle. The setting, the stunning small village on the hill/island of Mt. St. Michel, added to the enjoyment.

-- Patrik

Date: Mon, 10 Jul 2000 10:43:23 +0200
From: Patrik Persson
Organization: Computer Science department, Lund University