IEEE Software CALL FOR ARTICLES OBJECTS, PATTERNS AND ARCHITECTURES IEEE Software seeks articles for a special issue on objects, patterns and architectures, scheduled for November 1996. Object-oriented methods, patterns and architectures have garnered a lot of attention in recent years because each holds out the promise of addressing the chronic problems of software development: high development costs, even higher maintenance costs, appallingly low levels of reuse, unbelievable-and unrealized-schedules, and so on. Advocates have proposed excellent reasons-in some cases, raising these reasons to universal propositions-as to why their technology can "solve the software crisis." However, when looked at as a whole, the stated reasons are strangely at odds with one another. This special issue will examine the questions: What are the relationships between object-oriented methods, patterns and architectures? And what is the effect of the conjunction of these technologies on the system development lifecycle? Case studies and experience reports are especially welcome. We welcome articles that: *explicate the relationships between the technologies, focusing on contradictions or differing assumption sets; *report on projects that have applied all three of these technologies, either successfully or unsuccessfully; *show how these technologies can work together in the systems development lifecycle; *integrate the technologies to point the way forward. This issue focuses on the relationships, intersections, and conjunctions of these technologies. We therefore discourage articles that discuss the technologies in and of themselves, rather than interactions between them. Similarly, we discourage articles that examine only the interactions between two technologies and exclude the third. Stephen J. Mellor Ralph Johnson Project Technology. University of Illinois 2560 Ninth Street Department of Computer Science Suite 214 1304 West Springfield Ave Berkeley, CA 94710 Urbana, Ill. 61801 USA USA steve@projtech.com rjohnson@uiuc.edu FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS This FAQ is intended to remove barriers to making a decision to submit an article. If you decide to submit an article, please contact Angela Burgess, PO Box 3014, Los Alamitos, CA 90720 USA; fax +1 (714) 821-4010; e- mail: aburgess@computer.org, or one of the editors for a copy of the detailed author guidelines. How much should I write? Between 1500 to 5400 words, 10 to 35 Kbytes on disk or 6 to 18 double-spaced pages, including illustrations. The editors strongly prefer a well-focused short paper to a rambling discourse. Short papers allow us to present more points of view. By when? The deadline for submission is Friday, 12 January 1996. Other deadlines are listed below. How do I submit? Submit eight (8) copies of original manuscripts to one of the editors. Attached a separate cover sheet to each copy that shows the title of the article, full name, affiliation, address, phone number, and e-mail address of each author and designate the author who is to be contacted. Alternatively, articles can also be submitted electronically to opa@projtech.com. Submitted files must be in PostScript format with all figures and tables included, as created on Unix systems by: cat paper.ps|compress|uuencode paper.ps.Z >paper.uue or, in most other environments, by the 'print to file' command with the PostScript output format option. Although it is politically incorrect, paper copy is preferred for the initial submission. What happens then? All submissions will be fully refereed for accuracy, technical content, and relevance. Authors will receive the reviewers' comments and will be given a chance to respond to these reviews. Authors' replies will be taken into consideration in the final article selection decision. Authors must obtain employer, client, or government releases prior to submittal of the final manuscript. Accepted articles will appear in IEEE Software, scheduled for November 1996. Important Dates Article submissions due 12 January 1996 Author notification 15 March 1996 Revisions back 17 May 1996 Publication November 1996