Onward! 2024
2024-10-23..2024-10-25
Pasadena, United States
Onward! ·
[Onward! 2020, Onward! 2021, Onward! 2022, Onward! 2023, Onward! 2024, Onward! 2025]
who it's for
programming language designers, software engineering researchers, developer tooling engineers, compiler engineers, human-computer interaction researchers, engineering managers, computer science educators
topics
graph-based live-state languages; node-to-text visual languages; connected collections prototype; mutation testing with DeepState; AFL++ fuzzing campaigns; use-site type checking critiques; residualized debug metadata (DWARF); dynamic software updates (Active DSU); natural-language object interfaces; live scalable reactive web apps; moldable exceptions; feminist programming language design
| title | author | length |
|---|---|---|
| The Hidden Program State Hurts Everyone | Sverrir Thorgeirsson, Oliver Graf, Zhendong Su | 41m |
Argues that hidden program state slows developers, demonstrates a graph-based live-state language called Algot (also written Alot in studies) that lets users… | ||
| The Linguistics of Programming | Colin S. Gordon | 38m |
Argues that linguistics supplies concrete tools and predictions for PL/SE: pragmatics explains systematic errors when people translate English to LTL (frequent… | ||
| Programming Languages for the Future of Design Computation | Robert Aish, Al Fisher, Dominic Orchard, Jay Torry | 43m |
Argues for a concrete four-language system: an entry visual language that warns when graphs get illegible, a transitional node-to-text language with one-to-one… | ||
| Redressing the balance: a yin-yang perspective on information technology | Konrad Hinsen | 39m |
Argues that IT emphasizes action (yang) while neglecting learning, understanding and trust (yin), and proposes concrete fixes: use three computational… | ||
| (Programs), Proofs and Refutations (and Tests and Mutants) | Alex Groce | 43m |
An essay-format classroom dialogue probes whether a program is correct by debating binary search specifications and then actually breaking things. It mutates… | ||
| Use Site Checking Considered Harmful | Dimi Racordon, Benjamin W Chung | 40m |
Argues that use-site checking—deferring generic type checks until concrete instantiation—pushes errors to call sites, breaks local reasoning, and lets hidden… | ||
| A New Cognitive Perspective on Simplicity in System and Product Design | Stefan Lesser | 52m |
Argues simplicity emerges from organizing complexity, not removing it, and proposes a mechanical vs experiential complexity distinction tied to System 2 and… | ||
| tl;dr: Chill, y’all – AI will not devour SE | Eunsuk Kang, Mary Shaw | 50m |
Claim: AI will not destroy software engineering; software engineering is design‑heavy, context‑rich work that already assimilates AI ideas (linked lists… | ||
| Discovering Your Software Umwelt | Rebecca Wirfs-Brock, Allen Wirfs-Brock, Jordan Wirfs-Brock | 43m |
Applies the biological concept of umwelt to software development by having each author write 1500-word narratives about their tooling, careers, and surprising… | ||
| Dialogues on Natural Code | Lu Wilson, David H. Ackley | 48m |
The essay claims that everyday human language functions like a programming language and backs that with recorded weekly dialogues, a published essay (DOI… | ||
| A Case for Feminism in Programming Language Design | Felienne Hermans, Ari Schlesinger | 49m |
Argues that programming languages are socially constructed and that Haddi localized to 59 languages proves inclusivity is technical and valuable (hundreds of… | ||
| Source-level debugging of compiler-optimised code: ill-posed, but not impossible | Stephen Kell, J. Ryan Stinnett | 25m |
Argues it is possible to get both full source-level debuggability and full optimisation by residualize state into the debugging metadata rather than assuming… | ||
| Active DSU: Dynamic Software Updates for Active Functions | Filip Strömbäck, Dániel Varró | 27m |
Claims ability to update active, long‑running functions by rewriting the call stack at runtime and replaces return addresses with stubs so the topmost frame… | ||
| Talking to Objects in Natural Language: Toward Semantic Tools for Exploratory(…) | Christoph Thiede, Marcel Taeumel, Lukas Böhme, Robert Hirschfeld | 28m |
Proposal builds a working prototype in Squeak/Smalltalk that uses GPT-4o as an exploratory agent which inspects object state, browses source, and executes… | ||
| Software Engineering Methods For AI-Driven Deductive Legal Reasoning | Rohan Padhye | 29m |
Argues LLMs can be treated as interpreters of natural‑language programs and applies software‑engineering techniques to real statutes: uses Anthropic Claude 3… | ||
| Scimitar: Functional Programs as Optimization Problems | Nate F. F. Bragg, Jeffrey S. Foster, Philip Zucker | 28m |
Scimitar compiles a functional subset into MILP constraints (implemented in Racket) and automatically applies expert encodings like McCormick envelopes for… | ||
| Abstract Debuggers: Exploring Program Behaviors Using Static Analysis Results | Karoliine Holter, Juhan Oskar Hennoste, Patrick Lam, Simmo Saan, Vesal Vojdani | 21m |
Prototype debugger uses Goblint to let developers navigate an abstract reachability graph produced by a static analyzer, mapping debugger actions to abstract… | ||
| The Meerkat Vision: Language Support for Live, Scalable, Reactive Web Apps | João Costa Seco, Jonathan Aldrich | 25m |
Meerkat presents a language that implements live code and data updates with atomic reconfiguration so UI, state and actions change together; the prototype runs… | ||
| A Programing Language for Data and Configuration! | Mark Marron | 27m |
Proposes a new programming-language-style schema that packs type-safety, versioning, packaging, IDE support into data/config specs, with real newtypes… | ||
| Beyond Procedure Calls as Component Glue: Connectors Deserve Metaclass Status | Marcel Weiher, Marcel Taeumel, Robert Hirschfeld | 39m |
A language called Objective-S makes connectors first-class via a metaobject protocol that turns procedure calls, data access, and pipes into polymorphic… | ||
| Reclaiming the Unexplored in Hybrid Visual Programming | Michael Homer | 27m |
Argues that visual languages currently just mimic textual compilers and demonstrates a prototype hybrid system that stores one semantic model but exposes it as… | ||
| Moldable Exceptions | Andrei Chiş, Tudor Girba, Oscar Nierstrasz | 29m |
Claim: exceptions carry contextual tooling so the debugger swaps in custom views and actions attached to the exception object. Implementation: a GT view pragma… | ||
| Onward! introduction | Jonathan Edwards, Marcel Taeumel | 06m |
Conference opens with program and logistics: 30 paper submissions and 18 essays generate about 150 reviews, yielding 11 papers, 11 essays that are interleaved… | ||
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