CoFI: invitation to participate + upcoming meetings

[Don Sannella <dts@dcs.ed.ac.uk>]

[This note is being sent to the news-groups comp.specification.misc and
comp.specification.larch and the cofi-list@brics.dk mailing list]

The Common Framework Initiative (CoFI) is an open international
collaboration which aims to provide a common framework for algebraic
specification and development of software.  The central element of the
Common Framework is a specification language called CASL for formal
specification of functional requirements and modular software design
which subsumes many previous algebraic specification languages.  Many
readers will by now be aware of the existence of CoFI and CASL even if 
they have not contributed to them personally.

This message has two purposes:

  1. To invite you to participate in CoFI

  2. To inform you of upcoming CoFI events, particularly the CoFI
     "user group meeting" at FM'99 in Toulouse on 21 September.

Invitation
----------
New participants are welcome to join CoFI at any time.  Anybody who
wishes to contribute is warmly invited to visit the CoFI web site at

    http://www.brics.dk/Projects/CoFI/

where all CoFI documentation, design notes, minutes of past meetings
etc. are freely available.  Announcements of general interest to CoFI
participants are broadcast on the low-volume mailing list
cofi-list@brics.dk and there are various more specialized mailing
lists; see the CoFI web site for subscription instructions.  All of
these mailing lists are moderated.  If you think you have a
contribution to make in a specific area, contact the relevant task
group coordinator(s) (see the web site) and/or participate in
discussions on the relevant mailing list(s) and/or come along to CoFI
working meetings.  Funding from the European Commission is available
until September 2000 to cover travel to CoFI working meetings but
there are strict rules concerning eligibility, see

    http://www.dcs.ed.ac.uk/home/dts/CoFI-WG/

Upcoming CoFI events
--------------------
Two CoFI events will take place in September.  The first is WADT'99 in 
Bonas near Toulouse on 15-18 September, see

    http://www-lsr.imag.fr/WADT99/

There will be CoFI sessions and CoFI working meetings at WADT'99.
These will be of interest especially for existing CoFI participants
and presumably all these people will have already decided to attend
(or not).  Unfortunately, I don't know if registrations for this
workshop are still being accepted.

The second is a one-day "user group" meeting at FM'99 in Toulouse
on 21 September, see

    http://www.dcs.ed.ac.uk/home/dts/CoFI-WG/fm99.html

and

    http://www.cert.fr/fm99/	or
    http://www.fmse.cs.reading.ac.uk/fm99/

for information about FM'99.  This will be an introduction to CoFI,
concentrating chiefly on the features of the CASL language and
methodological guidelines on using CASL to specify and develop modular
software systems. Some of the CASL tools will be presented and
demonstrated.

    *** The FM'99 meeting is an ideal opportunity for CoFI ***
    *** newcomers to learn about what has been achieved so ***
    *** far and such people are urged to attend.           ***



Best regards,

Don Sannella
CoFI overall coordinator

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Prof. Donald Sannella, Laboratory for Foundations of Computer Science, 
Division of Informatics, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh EH9 3JZ
http://www.dcs.ed.ac.uk/home/dts/  ftp://ftp.dcs.ed.ac.uk/pub/dts
E-mail: dts@dcs.ed.ac.uk phone: +44 131 650 5184 fax: +44 131 667 7209
Secretary: Margaret Davis e-mail: mda@dcs.ed.ac.uk phone: +44 131 650 5132
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