Onward!

Chair: Cristina Videira Lopes
University of California, Irvine
onward@oopsla.org

Overview
Objects have grown up, software is everywhere, and we are now facing a consequence of this success: the perception that we know what programming is all about and that building software systems is, therefore, just a simple matter of programming ... with better or worse languages, tools, and processes. But we know better. Programming technology may have matured, programming languages, tools, and processes may have proliferated, but fundamental issues pertaining to computer Programming, Systems, Languages, and Applications are still as untamed, as new, and as exciting as they ever were. Just think:

What is the nature of the gap between the systems we want and the systems we program?
How can we cope with the uncertainty of the real world in the systems we build?
How can we find/maintain the overlapping conceptual models underneath programs?
How can we weave, unweave, and reweave the conceptual threads that compose programs?

In Onward!, we ask these questions, and explore for answers.

Program