Introduction
IFIP Working Group 2.4 was founded in 1974. Since then it has met roughly every 9 to 12 months. There are many Working Groups under the aegis of IFIP (The International Federation for Information Processing). Nine working groups in areas related to software comprise IFIP Technical Committee 2.

The Group's Purpose
When originally created, the mandate of the group was to investigate System Implementation Languages. Over time, the interests of the group have evolved while the original focus now appears less important. Consequently, the group decided at its Banff meeting, held in September 1999, to change its name to

Software Implementation Technology.

The more generic title includes, but is not limited to, the following areas of concern:

• The relationship of language design to system construction, maintenance and enhancement.
• Software portability and reusability, and how they can best be achieved using new techniques such as Java and XML.
• Compilation techniques from analysis to code generation and optimization.
• Experience in the use of languages for building system software.
• Software and hardware environments to facilitate the design, construction and maintenance of large software systems.
• The influence of distributed technology, the internet and parallelism on the design, maintenance and efficiency of system software.
• The particular focus of the group is upon the pragmatic engineering aspects of the problem: measurements, evaluation, critical comparisons, and development of economically viable techniques.
  

WG 2.4 Meetings
The working group meets about every 9 to 12 months, normally alternating between venues in North America and Europe. Usually, about 25 to 40 members and observers attend a meeting. The meetings are held in an informal conference format: participants are asked to give presentations of their actual work on topics within the scope of WG 2.4.

Note: Attendance at meetings is by invitation only. If you are interested in participating as an observer in a future meeting, you may make a request to attend through your IFIP TC-2 national representative, or you may contact any member of WG 2.4.