Compiler positions available for week ending May 31

This is a digest of ``help wanted'' and ``position available'' messages
received at comp.compilers during the preceding week. Messages must
advertise a position having something to do with compilers and must also
conform to the guidelines periodically posted in misc.jobs.offered.
Positions that remain open may be re-advertised once a month. To respond
to a job offer, send mail to the author of the message. To submit a
message, mail it to compilers@iecc.com.




-------------------------------


Subject: position available at INRIA/IRISA, France
Date: Fri, 29 May 1998 20:57:15 +0200
From: Renaud Marlet <Renaud.Marlet@irisa.fr>


                                          Open Positions in the Compose group


Positions


The Compose research group at INRIA/IRISA (Rennes, France) is offering
several positions in the area of domain-specific languages and partial
evaluation.


      * 2 software engineers (for 1-2 years) [funding is pending]
      * 1 post-doctorate (for 1-2 years)
      * 1 PhD student


The software engineer positions are subject to final authorization.




Project background


Research in program families and domain analysis study techniques for
building families of similar software. One approach is based on
domain-specific languages (DSLs), which are a natural way to specify
(program) members of program families. Besides high re-use, easy maintenance
and productivity gains, DSLs also offer more opportunities for checking
program properties. Because of all those benefits, recently, DSLs have been
attracting a lot of attention in academia (Usenix conferences DSL'97 and
DSL'99) as well as industry (Lucent Technologies, Philips, Motorola, etc.).


The Compose group has developed a methodology for designing and developing
efficient implementations of domain-specific languages. In this framework, a
DSL is implemented with an interpreter which is then turned automatically
into a compiler via partial evaluation. The interpreter offers easy
development and adaptability while partial evaluation provides efficiency.


Partial evaluation is the process that automates program specialization.
Specialization is a program transformation that, given some specific
execution context, turns a (slow) generic program into (fast) specific
program. In particular, specializing an interpreter with respect to a given
program yields a compiled program where the interpretation layer has been
removed.


The Compose group has developed a partial evaluator for C programs, named
Tempo Specializer. This partial evaluator has been used successfully for
specializing DSL interpreters for languages such as GAL (a language for
specifying video card drivers) and PLAN-P (a language for safe and efficient
active networking). Tempo Specializer has also been applied in various other
domains (operating systems, computer graphics, scientific computation,
etc.).




Research project


The successful applicants will work on the methodology for designing and
developing environments for domain-specific languages, studying:


      * ways of expressing the semantics of languages via interpretation
      * extensions / compositions of languages
      * strategies to derive / compose program analyses


This involves both theoretical and practical aspects as the efficiency
gained by partial evaluation must be retained and guaranteed. Extensions of
the partial evaluation principles and their implementation in Tempo are
possible. The outcome of this study shall be:


      * an improved design methodology addressing the modular construction of a
          DSL
      * a toolbox implementing the corresponding building blocks
      * the assessment of this methodology and implementation on several
          practical applications




The Compose group


Compose is one of the leading groups in partial evaluation. Its areas of
contribution range from programming languages to operating systems and
software engineering. Representative publications can be found at
http://www.irisa.fr/compose/papers. Several industrials are funding the
research projects: Alcatel, Bull, CNET, Thomson Multimedia. More information
can be found at http://www.irisa.fr/compose.


The Compose group has organized recently a workshop on the Tempo
Specializer; it has attracted over 20 people, both from academia and
industry. Tempo is now distributed and being used in 10 sites in academia
(including MIT, DIKU, Oregon Graduate Institute) and industry (Bull,
CNET/France Telecom, Thomson).


The Compose group currently consists of 6 researchers, 4 PhD students and 6
MSc students. It is part of the INRIA/IRISA research center, which is
located in Rennes (Brittany, France).




Applying for the positions


Applicants must have a solid background in at least one of the following
fields:


      * design and implementation of programming languages
      * program analyses and transformations
      * embedded systems
      * operating systems
      * software architectures


The practical aspects of the project will involve C/C++ and SML programming.


To apply, please send a resume and the name of two references at
compose-contact@irisa.fr. Applications will be reviewed as they arrive.
Applicants for a PhD fellowship are encouraged to apply before June 5th (but
can still applied afterwards). Applicants for the software engineer
positions should apply before June 30th. Up-to-date information concerning
those positions can be found at
http://www.irisa.fr/compose/admin/positions.html.




--

Return to the comp.compilers page.
Search the comp.compilers archives again.