The fundamental concepts of rule-based programming are present in many areas of computer science, from theory to practical implementations. In programming languages, term rewriting is used in semantics as well as in implementations that use bottom-up rewriting for code generation. Rules are also used to perform computations in various systems; to describe logical inference in theorem provers; to specify and implement constraint-based algorithms and applications; and to describe and implement program transformations. Rule-based programming provides a common framework for viewing computation as a sequence of transformations on some shared structure such as a term, graph, proof, or constraint store. Rule selection and application is typically governed by a rich set of sophisticated mechanisms for recognizing and manipulating structures.

After the development of the principles of rewriting logic and of the rewriting calculus in the nineties, languages and systems such as ASF+SDF, BURG, CHRS, Claire, ELAN, Maude, and Stratego contributed to demonstrate the importance of rule-based programming. The area has since been experiencing a period of growth with the emergence of new concepts, systems, and applications domains, such as Domain Specific Languages, Generative and Aspect-Oriented Programming, and Software Engineering activities like maintenance, reverse engineering, and testing.

The goal of this workshop is to bring together researchers from the various communities working on rule-based programming to foster advances in the foundations and research on rule-based programming methods and systems; and to promote cross-fertilization between theory and practice, and the application of rule-based programming in various important domains.

Rule'08 is the ninth in a series of workshops. The first Rule workshop was held in Montréal in 2000, and subsequent editions took place in Firenze, Pittsburgh, Valência, Aachen, Nara, Seattle, and Paris.

We solicit original papers on all topics related to rule-based programming including but not limited to

Theory and Languages for rule-based programming:

• Advances in the rewriting calculus
• Advances in rewriting logic
• Complexity results
• Static analysis
• Semantics
• Type Systems
• Implementation techniques
• Domain-specific Languages

Applications:

• Software analysis and transformation
• Software development and testing
• Reengineering
• Security

Paradigm combinations of Rule-based programming:

• with Functional Programming
• with Logic Programming
• with Object-oriented programming
• Language embedding and extensions

Tool and System descriptions

• Usability engineering for rule-based programming tools
• Experience in building or using rule-based programming systems
• Practical aspects of rule-based programming systems
• Empirical evaluation of rule-based programming

Submissions to the workshop will be judged on the basis of originality, relevance, technical soundness and presentation quality.

Papers must be written in English and not exceed 15 pages in ENTCS format (see ENTCS formatting guidelines). Papers should be submitted electronically via the web-based submission site. If you experience any problems with the submission procedure please contact the PC chairs (Günter Kniesel and Jorge Sousa Pinto).

The workshop proceedings will be published by Elsevier Science in Electronic Notes in Theoretical Computer Science (ENTCS). The ENTCS final proceedings will be prepared after the workshop.

Accepted papers will also be published in a pre-proceedings volume in the technical report series of the Computer Science Department III at the University of Bonn (ISSN 0944-8535). Printed copies of the pre-proceedings will be available at the workshop for all participants.

For the pre-proceedings, please follow the instructions in http://www.entcs.org/prelim.html using the prentcsmacros.sty file available from http://www.entcs.org/files/rule08/prentcsmacro.sty.

• RULE 2007, at RTA, Paris, France, 2007
• RULE 2006, at FLoC, Seattle, WA, USA, 2006.
• RULE 2005, at RDP, Nara, Japan, 2005
• RULE 2004, at RDP, Aachen, Germany, 2004
• RULE 2003, at RDP, Valencia, Spain, 2003.
• RULE 2002, at PLI, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA, 2002
• RULE 2001, at PLI, Firenze, Italy, 2001
• RULE 2000, at PLI, Montréal, Cananda, 2000