Preface Electronic Communications of the EASST Volume 3 (2006) Proceedings of the Third Workshop on Software Evolution through Transformations: Embracing the Change (SeTra 2006) Preface Jean-Marie Favre, Reiko Heckel and Tom Mens 2 pages Guest Editors: Jean-Marie Favre, Reiko Heckel, Tom Mens Managing Editors: Tiziana Margaria, Julia Padberg, Gabriele Taentzer ECEASST Home Page: http://www.easst.org/eceasst/ ISSN 1863-2122 http://www.easst.org/eceasst/ ECEASST Preface Jean-Marie Favre1, Reiko Heckel2 and Tom Mens3 1 Universite Grenoble 1, France, Jean-Marie.Favre@imag.fr 2 University of Leicester, UK, reiko@mcs.le.ac.uk 3 Université de Mons-Hainaut, Belgium, tom.mens@umh.ac.be Abstract: Transformation-based techniques such as refactoring, model transforma- tion and model-driven development, architectural reconfiguration, etc. are at the heart of many software engineering activities, making it possible to cope with an ever changing environment. This workshop, held as satellite event of the 3rd International Conference on Graph Transformation (ICGT 2006) in Natal, Rio Grande do Norte, Brazil on 22nd Septem- ber 2006, provided a forum for discussing these techniques, their formal foundations and applications. Keywords: software evolution, model and program transformation, graph transfor- mation, term rewriting Since its birth as a discipline in the late 60ies Software Engineering had to cope with the breakdown of many of its original assumptions. Today we know that it is impossible to fix requirements up front, the design of the system is changing while it is being developed, the distinction between design time and run-time is increasingly blurred, a system’s architecture will change or degrade while it is in use, and technology will change more rapidly than it is possible to re-implement critical applications. This recognition of lack of stability in software means that we have to cope with change, rather than defending against it. Processes, methods, languages, and tools have to be geared towards making change possible and cheap. Transformations of development artifacts like specifications, designs, code, or run-time archi- tectures are at the heart of many software engineering activities. Their systematic specification and implementation are the basis for a wide range of tools, from compilers and refactoring tools to model-driven CASE tools and formal verification environments. The workshop provides a forum for the discussion transformation-based techniques in software evolution. Papers present in these proceedings cover a range of artifacts and formalisms of transforma- tions, from program to model transformation and from XSLT to term and graph rewriting. They address activities like model-driven development, model and code refactoring, model merging and consistency management, requirements evolution, and run-time evolution of web service processes. An invited presentation by Michael Löwe addressed the Refactoring Information Systems us- ing techniques based on graph transformation and category theory. The final discussion focused on the pros and cons of graph- and tree-based models for the transformation of programs, which are not obviously graphical in structure. 1 / 2 Volume 3 (2006) mailto:Jean-Marie.Favre@imag.fr mailto:reiko@mcs.le.ac.uk mailto:tom.mens@umh.ac.be Preface Acknowledgements: The workshop was supported by the European Research Training Net- work SegraVis on Syntactic and Semantic Integration of Visual Modelling Techniques, the Inte- grated Project Sensoria on Software Engineering for Service-Oriented Overlay Computers, and the ERCIM Working Group on Software Evolution. We are indebted to the following program committee for assisting us in reviewing and selection of papers. • Luciano Baresi, Politecnico di Milano, Italy • Thaı́s Batista, Federal University of Rio Grande do Norte, Brazil • Paulo Borba, Universidade Federal de Pernambuco, Recife, Brazil • Artur Boronat, Universidad Politécnica de Valencia, Spain • Christiano de Oliveira Braga, Universidad Complutense de Madrid, Spain • Andrea Corradini, Università di Pisa, Italy • Mohammad El-Ramly, University of Leicester, UK • Jean-Marie Favre, Universite Grenoble 1, France [co-chair] • Reiko Heckel, University of Leicester, UK [co-chair] • Dirk Janssens, University of Antwerp, Belgium • Tom Mens, Université de Mons-Hainaut, Belgium [co-chair] • Anamaria Martins Moreira, Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Norte, Natal, Brazil • Leila Silva, Universidade Federal de Segipe, Brazil • German Vega, Universite Grenoble 1, France February 2007 Jean-Marie Favre, Reiko Heckel and Tom Mens Organisers Proc. SeTra 2006 2 / 2