Programming Languages and Systems: 17th European Symposium on Programming, ESOP 2008, Held as Part of the Joint European Conferences on Theory and Pra

ETAPS2008wasthe11thinstanceoftheEuropeanJointConferencesonTheory and Practice of Software. ETAPS is an annual federated conference that was established in 1998 by combining a number of existing and new conferences. This yearit comprised?ve conferences (CC, ESOP,FASE, FOSSACS, TACAS), 22satelliteworkshops(ACCAT,AVIS,Bytecode,CMCS,COCV,DCC,FESCA, FIT, FORMED, GaLoP, GT-VMT, LDTA, MBT, MOMPES, PDMC, QAPL, RV,SafeCert,SC,SLA++P,WGT,andWRLA),ninetutorials,andseveninvited lectures (excluding those that were speci?c to the satellite events). The ?ve main conferences received 571 submissions, 147 of which were accepted, giving an overall acceptance rate of less than 26%, with each conference below 27%. Congratulationsthereforetoallthe authorswhomadeittothe ?nalprogramme! I hope that most of the other authors will still have found a way of participating in this exciting event, and that you will all continue submitting to ETAPS and contributing to make of it the best conference in the area. The events that comprise ETAPS address various aspects of the system - velopment process, including speci?cation, design, implementation, analysis and improvement. The languages, methodologies and tools which support these - tivities are all well within its scope. Di?erent blends of theory and practice are represented, with an inclination towards theory with a practical motivation on the one hand and soundly based practice on the other. Many of the issues involved in software design apply to systems in general, including hardware s- tems, and the emphasis on software is not intended to be exclusive.