John-Jules Ch. Meyer - Böcker

This volume is focused on the dynamics of reasoning processes. It covers both the topics of the dynamics of reasoning, where reasoning is viewed as a process, and reasoning about dynamics, which must be understood as pertaining to how both designers of, and agents within dynamic systems may reason about these systems. In this volume real-life applications of the modelling techniques are also considered, as the research during the DRUMS (Defeasible Reasoning and Uncertainty Management Systems) project was aimed at bridging the gap between theory and practice. In order to give the book a broader perspective, a number of well-known researchers outside the project but working on similar topics, have been invited to contribute.

This last volume of the Handbook of Defeasible Reasoning and Uncertainty Management Systems is - together with Volume 6 - devoted to the topics Reasoning and Dynamics, covering both the topics of "Dynamics of Reasoning", where reasoning is viewed as a process, and "Reasoning about Dynamics", which must be understood as pertaining to how both designers of, and agents within dynamic systems may reason about these systems. The present volume presents work done in this context and is more focused on "reasoning about dynamics", viz. how (human and artificial) agents reason about (systems in) dynamic environments in order to control them. In particular modelling frameworks and generic agent models for modelling these dynamic systems and formal approaches to these systems such as logics for agents and formal means to reason about agent-based and compositional systems, and action & change more in general are considered.

In recent years, concepts in object-oriented modeling and programming have been extended in several directions, giving rise to new paradigms such as age- orientation and feature-orientation. This volume came out of a Dagstuhl seminar exploring the relationship - tween the original paradigm and the two new ones. Following the success of the seminar, the idea emerged to edit a volume with contributions from parti- pants - including those who were invited but could not come. The participants' reaction was very positive, and so we, the organizers of the seminar, felt - couraged to edit this volume. All submissions were properly refereed, resulting in the present selection of high-quality papers in between the topics of objects, agents and features. The editors got help from a number of additional reviewers, viz. Peter Ahlbrecht, Daniel Amyot, Lynne Blair, Jan Broersen, Mehdi Dastani, Virginia Dignum, Dimitar Guelev, Benjamin Hirsch, Maik Kollmann, Alice Miller, Stephan Rei?-Marganiec, Javier Vazquez-Salceda, and Gerard Vreeswijk.Finally, we would like to take this opportunity to thank all the persons - volvedintherealizationoftheseminarandthisbook:attendees,authors,revi- ers, and, last but not least, the sta? from Schloss Dagstuhl and Springer-Verlag. February 2004 The Editors TableofContents Objects, Agents, and Features: An Introduction...1 John-Jules Ch. Meyer, Mark D. Ryan, and Hans-Dieter Ehrich Coordinating Agents in OO ...8 Frank S. de Boer, Cees Pierik, Rogier M. van Eijk, and John-Jules Ch. Meyer On Feature Orientation and on Requirements Encapsulation Using Families of Requirements...26 Jan Bredereke Detecting Feature Interactions: How Many Components Do We Need?...

This volume presents the papers contributed to DEON 2006, the 8th Inter- tional Workshop on Deontic Logic in Computer Science, held in Utrecht, The Netherlands, July 12–14, 2006. These biennial DEON (more properly, ?EON) workshops are designed to promote international cooperation among scholars across disciplines who are interested in deontic logic and its use in computer science. They support research that links the formal-logical study of normative concepts and normative systems with computer science, arti?cial intelligence, philosophy, organization theory, and law. Papers for these workshops might address such general themes as the dev- opment of formal systems of deontic logic and related areas of logic, such as logics of action and agency, or the formal analysis of all sorts of normative concepts, such as the notions of rule, role, regulation, authority, power, rights, respon- bility, etc. , or the formal representation of legal knowledge. They might also be more concerned with applications, such as the formal speci?cation of systems for the management of bureaucratic processes in public or private administration, or the speci?cation of database integrity constraints or computer security protocols, and more. Of particular interest is the interaction between computer systems and their users. (The DEON 2006 website, http://www. cs. uu. nl/deon2006/,c- tains links to previous workshops and their papers. This history reveals a vibrant interdisciplinary research program.

This volume is focused on the dynamics of reasoning processes. It covers both the topics of 'Dynamics of Reasoning', where reasoning is viewed as a process, and 'Reasoning about Dynamics', which must be understood as pertaining to how both designers of, and agents within dynamic systems may reason about these systems. In this volume real-life applications of the modelling techniques are also considered, as the research during the DRUMS (Defeasible Reasoning and Uncertainty Management Systems) project was aimed at bridging the gap between theory and practice. In order to give the book a broader perspective, a number of well-known researchers outside the project but working on similar topics, have been invited to contribute as well.