How to register online

Advance registration is available up until the 1st of September

Full registration will be 270 pounds, and student registration 170.  A ticket for the Thursday night dinner will be 20 pounds (the Wednesday night reception is free).

There are two steps for registration:

Step 1: Pay online (by credit/debit card) here. (Alternatively, visit www.lancs.ac.uk and follow the “online payments” link, and then “online store”)

Step 2: Email John Rooksby (rooksby@googlemail.com) with the subject line “PPIG Registration” stating your – 1: Name, 2: Email, 3: Institution, 4: Any special dietary requirements (other than vegetarian), 5: Any other special requirements, 6: Confirm that you have paid online (yes/no – if no, please give a reason) 7: Whether you plan to join us for dinner on Thursday.

Please direct any questions to John Rooksby

We will get this information on the official site ASAP.

Abstract for Peggy Storey’s keynote talk

Keynote Speaker: Margaret-Anne Storey (University of Victoria)

Source Code Comments: Graffiti or Information?

Source code is a formal, unambiguous language that is both machine and human readable. Source code comments, on the other hand, enhance only human understanding and communication by providing additional information about the system and the processes used to develop it. Interestingly, many developers either hate or love comments, while others add them to their programs but often in an ad hoc manner. In this talk, I will explore the role of source code comments on program comprehension, referring to both the cognitive and social aspects of how they are used. First, I will review theories and studies, some that are now over 30 years old, which capture what we know today on this topic. Next I will describe our ongoing work that investigates how source code comments and annotations support reminding and refinding in software development. Finally, I will conclude by proposing that more empirical and social studies on how comments influence program comprehension are needed. I will also put forward ideas for improved tool support for authoring, navigating and managing source code comments.

Tutorials

The two PPIG 2008 tutorials will be run in parallel, and will be at no extra charge to anyone registered for the conference.  One tutorial will concern Cognitive Dimensions, the other Ethnography.  More news on these soon.

Schedule

We are still fine tuning the schedule, but here is a general overview:

Wednesday

10.30-13.00 Doctoral Consortium

13.30 Registration

14.00 Keynote 1 – Margaret-Anne Storey

Thursday

9.00 Keynote 2 – Alan Dix

15.30 Tutorials (free to conference delegates)

Friday

9.00 Keynote 3 – Adrian Mackenzie

16.00 (approx) Close

Hello world!

The PPIG2008 blog is for all the latest news and gossip surrounding the PPIG 2008 conference at Lancaster University.  The conference website is still the source for ‘official’ information.  John Rooksby (the local chair) has started this blog as he has now moved from Lancaser to the University of St Andrews, making it difficult to do regular updates to the main website.  Updates to the main website will happen, but may be slow.