Euro Plop Opening Letter

thanks for your submission to EuroPLoP 97. Before going on, we would like to explain a few issues in which EuroPLoP is different than most other conferences. In addition, a few things have changed compared with previous years.

If you have submitted a pattern paper, your paper will be "shepherded", not reviewed. You will receive this mail from a seasoned pattern author who has been assigned your paper and who will act as your shepherd. He will work with you to improve your paper during the next weeks. He or she will finally make a recommendation to the EuroPLoP 97 program committee about your paper.

You may be asked to make changes to your patterns as a condition for acceptance to the conference. You and your shepherd will probably go through several rounds of review and change between now and the conference dates. Should your shepherd feel the need for assistance, he or she will invite other shepherds to help.

EuroPLoP's focus leads to a different attitude towards submissions. Novelty to techniques is held against papers, since unique techniques are unlikely to be mature enough to be expressed as patterns. Correctness likewise is not a benefit, since PLoP exists to improve, not just publish. Grandeur in a submission is also a problem, since the greatest benefit comes from codifying ordinary techniques. The perfect EuroPLoP submission, then, is one which uses patterns to describe a commonly known, everyday development technique, but whose presentation needs improvement.

If your paper has been accepted for a writer's workshop at the conference, it will be part of the conference proceedings, made available by Siemens as a technical report. This proceedings is given out at the conference, and is not to be mistaken with a book from the software patterns series (SPS) by Addison-Wesley, which is a different thing (SPS was formerly known as the PLoPD book series). These books are only remotely connected with the conferences. John Vlissides, the SPS editor, will inform authors and editors about these issues later this year.

EuroPLoP is a great opportunity to improve your pattern paper through valuable feedback by peers and the (so far in the C.S. community unique) setting of writer's workshops. While not necessarily a precondition, it is your best chance of getting a paper ready for a subsequent SPS book.

We hope that EuroPLoP will be a gratifying event which helps you improve your pattern paper and learn more about other useful and related patterns.

Frank and Dirk