Jonathan Aldrich
@jonathanaldrich.bsky.social
Professor at Carnegie Mellon University, working on programming languages and software engineering. Coauthor, Programming Language Pragmatics (videos: https://tinyurl.com/PLP5vids). CTO of noteful.net ACM Publications Board member. He/him.
A follow-up: today in the SIGCHI town hall, ACM President Yannis Ioannidis expressed the long term goal that in general, things that were in the DL before ACM OPEN would be made available in the Basic Edition, with new features in the Premium Edition.
The @acm.org has listened to feedback and is making changes to the Digital Library. Some things are still under discussion. But:
* Citation counts will be added to the Basic library
* Authors will be able to create a "authorizer"-style link to the complete list of their pubs
* Citation counts will be added to the Basic library
* Authors will be able to create a "authorizer"-style link to the complete list of their pubs
January 16, 2026 at 2:17 PM
A follow-up: today in the SIGCHI town hall, ACM President Yannis Ioannidis expressed the long term goal that in general, things that were in the DL before ACM OPEN would be made available in the Basic Edition, with new features in the Premium Edition.
FYI--many ACM members may be interested in this, I was told that you can participate even if you are not a SIGCHI member.
Please attend our upcoming SIGCHI Town Hall, on Jan 16, 1:30pm UTC, where we will discuss the recent changes to the ACM Digital Library—the Basic and Premium versions—that were launched just prior to the launch of ACM Open on Jan 1. Full details: sigchi.org/events/sigch...
SIGCHI Town Hall - Jan 2026
ACM SIGCHI is the leading international community of students and professionals interested in research, education, and practical applications of Human Computer Interaction.
sigchi.org
January 15, 2026 at 10:17 PM
FYI--many ACM members may be interested in this, I was told that you can participate even if you are not a SIGCHI member.
The @acm.org has listened to feedback and is making changes to the Digital Library. Some things are still under discussion. But:
* Citation counts will be added to the Basic library
* Authors will be able to create a "authorizer"-style link to the complete list of their pubs
* Citation counts will be added to the Basic library
* Authors will be able to create a "authorizer"-style link to the complete list of their pubs
January 15, 2026 at 5:58 PM
The @acm.org has listened to feedback and is making changes to the Digital Library. Some things are still under discussion. But:
* Citation counts will be added to the Basic library
* Authors will be able to create a "authorizer"-style link to the complete list of their pubs
* Citation counts will be added to the Basic library
* Authors will be able to create a "authorizer"-style link to the complete list of their pubs
Distinguished paper at POPL'25 today! Hemant Gouni presents our work Security Reasoning via Substructural Dependency Tracking at 16:45 in Réfectoire. See how a new kind of *substructural* information flow types can be used for capabilities, leakage, sandboxing, authorization etc.
January 15, 2026 at 2:56 PM
Distinguished paper at POPL'25 today! Hemant Gouni presents our work Security Reasoning via Substructural Dependency Tracking at 16:45 in Réfectoire. See how a new kind of *substructural* information flow types can be used for capabilities, leakage, sandboxing, authorization etc.
Last call--submit paper to HotSoS! Three cool tracks:
* Get more visibility for Already Published Papers!
* Get feedback on Works-in-Progress papers!
* Share a Poster or Demo!
Focus is foundations of cyber security & privacy. Deadline Friday 1/16 AoE
sos-vo.org/group/hotsos...
* Get more visibility for Already Published Papers!
* Get feedback on Works-in-Progress papers!
* Share a Poster or Demo!
Focus is foundations of cyber security & privacy. Deadline Friday 1/16 AoE
sos-vo.org/group/hotsos...
HotSoS 2026 Call for Papers | Science of Security Virtual Organization
sos-vo.org
January 13, 2026 at 7:25 PM
Last call--submit paper to HotSoS! Three cool tracks:
* Get more visibility for Already Published Papers!
* Get feedback on Works-in-Progress papers!
* Share a Poster or Demo!
Focus is foundations of cyber security & privacy. Deadline Friday 1/16 AoE
sos-vo.org/group/hotsos...
* Get more visibility for Already Published Papers!
* Get feedback on Works-in-Progress papers!
* Share a Poster or Demo!
Focus is foundations of cyber security & privacy. Deadline Friday 1/16 AoE
sos-vo.org/group/hotsos...
Implement your new language/type system either as a beautiful new language / language extension, or as a super clunky library that fits fully within an existing language.
Inevitable tradeoff? Sigh....
Inevitable tradeoff? Sigh....
January 11, 2026 at 8:22 PM
Implement your new language/type system either as a beautiful new language / language extension, or as a super clunky library that fits fully within an existing language.
Inevitable tradeoff? Sigh....
Inevitable tradeoff? Sigh....
Great example of why academic institutions should stay focused on their mission and avoid taking tangentially-relevant political positions (on Israel, in this case as in so many others)
davidabell.substack.com/p/the-americ...
davidabell.substack.com/p/the-americ...
The American Historical Association Divided
The annual meeting of the American Historical Association used to be a pretty staid affair.
davidabell.substack.com
January 9, 2026 at 8:53 PM
Great example of why academic institutions should stay focused on their mission and avoid taking tangentially-relevant political positions (on Israel, in this case as in so many others)
davidabell.substack.com/p/the-americ...
davidabell.substack.com/p/the-americ...
What is object-oriented programming? How did it start?
Learn about the foundations of OOP--encapsulation, inheritance, and dynamic method binding--some basic constructs, and its Norwegian origins in simulation language research in my latest Programming Language Pragmatics video!
Learn about the foundations of OOP--encapsulation, inheritance, and dynamic method binding--some basic constructs, and its Norwegian origins in simulation language research in my latest Programming Language Pragmatics video!
January 8, 2026 at 2:49 PM
What is object-oriented programming? How did it start?
Learn about the foundations of OOP--encapsulation, inheritance, and dynamic method binding--some basic constructs, and its Norwegian origins in simulation language research in my latest Programming Language Pragmatics video!
Learn about the foundations of OOP--encapsulation, inheritance, and dynamic method binding--some basic constructs, and its Norwegian origins in simulation language research in my latest Programming Language Pragmatics video!
OMG I cannot believe how TERRIBLE California is for small business. If you have an LLC doing business in CA you must pay an $800 tax per year--even if you have no income yet. Completely ridiculous!
January 6, 2026 at 1:31 AM
OMG I cannot believe how TERRIBLE California is for small business. If you have an LLC doing business in CA you must pay an $800 tax per year--even if you have no income yet. Completely ridiculous!
Ok "genital inspections" are way more of a threat to our children than trans athletes ever will be. Quite frankly...it's not even close!
1. This weekend, far-right group Lets Go Washington announced that it had collected enough signatures to get a trans sports ban on the ballot in the state.
The bill includes genital inspection provisions.
It is one of the first to go forward in a blue state.
Subscribe to support our journalism.
The bill includes genital inspection provisions.
It is one of the first to go forward in a blue state.
Subscribe to support our journalism.
Trans Sports Ban With Genital Inspections Gains Enough Signatures To Appear On Washington State Ballot
The initiative collected 400,000 signatures, and will be one of the first major attempts to get an anti-trans law onto the ballot in a state that has dubbed itself a "refuge" for transgender people.
www.erininthemorning.com
January 5, 2026 at 5:59 PM
Ok "genital inspections" are way more of a threat to our children than trans athletes ever will be. Quite frankly...it's not even close!
Reposted by Jonathan Aldrich
6 years ago, 1300+ of us signed a petition asking @TheOfficialACM to open up its digital library. As of today, January 1, 2026, all ACM papers are free to access by anyone!
Changing big orgs is tough, but your voice matters and the rewards are great!
www.change.org/p/associatio...
Changing big orgs is tough, but your voice matters and the rewards are great!
www.change.org/p/associatio...
Sign the Petition
ACM Support Open Access
www.change.org
January 1, 2026 at 3:43 PM
6 years ago, 1300+ of us signed a petition asking @TheOfficialACM to open up its digital library. As of today, January 1, 2026, all ACM papers are free to access by anyone!
Changing big orgs is tough, but your voice matters and the rewards are great!
www.change.org/p/associatio...
Changing big orgs is tough, but your voice matters and the rewards are great!
www.change.org/p/associatio...
Sign the Petition
ACM Support Open Access
www.change.org
January 1, 2026 at 2:41 PM
6 years ago, 1300+ of us signed a petition asking @TheOfficialACM to open up its digital library. As of today, January 1, 2026, all ACM papers are free to access by anyone!
Changing big orgs is tough, but your voice matters and the rewards are great!
www.change.org/p/associatio...
Changing big orgs is tough, but your voice matters and the rewards are great!
www.change.org/p/associatio...
Wow--the real story of food deserts in the USA. The solution is as simple as stopping large chains from using their market power to get better deals from suppliers. Will politicians have the courage to apply the fix that worked pre-Reagan?
www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archiv...
www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archiv...
The Great Grocery Squeeze
How a federal policy change in the 1980s created the modern food desert
www.theatlantic.com
December 31, 2025 at 5:07 AM
Wow--the real story of food deserts in the USA. The solution is as simple as stopping large chains from using their market power to get better deals from suppliers. Will politicians have the courage to apply the fix that worked pre-Reagan?
www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archiv...
www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archiv...
Why is event handling so painful--and can async make it better?
Events are essential to programming, yet notoriously tricky. In my latest Programming Language Pragmatics video, learn about events & how to use language ideas like promises, async, and await to untangle event code!
Events are essential to programming, yet notoriously tricky. In my latest Programming Language Pragmatics video, learn about events & how to use language ideas like promises, async, and await to untangle event code!
December 23, 2025 at 5:34 PM
Why is event handling so painful--and can async make it better?
Events are essential to programming, yet notoriously tricky. In my latest Programming Language Pragmatics video, learn about events & how to use language ideas like promises, async, and await to untangle event code!
Events are essential to programming, yet notoriously tricky. In my latest Programming Language Pragmatics video, learn about events & how to use language ideas like promises, async, and await to untangle event code!
When there's a word for something, use it, rather than a negation. So, prefer "forbid" to "disallow." Prefer "range" to "codomain."
December 20, 2025 at 2:17 AM
When there's a word for something, use it, rather than a negation. So, prefer "forbid" to "disallow." Prefer "range" to "codomain."
Perhaps we should go back to in-person PC meetings, but run them like world chess championship matches. The reviewers selected to review a paper will enter a room having been scanned for electronic devices.
www.nature.com/articles/d41...
www.nature.com/articles/d41...
Major AI conference flooded with peer reviews written fully by AI
Controversy has erupted after 21% of manuscript reviews for an international AI conference were found to be generated by artificial intelligence.
www.nature.com
December 13, 2025 at 4:24 AM
Perhaps we should go back to in-person PC meetings, but run them like world chess championship matches. The reviewers selected to review a paper will enter a room having been scanned for electronic devices.
www.nature.com/articles/d41...
www.nature.com/articles/d41...
Exceptions and coroutines support non-local control flow in programs--how does that work, and what are these constructs for?
Learn about both in my latest Programming Language Pragmatics video!
PLP 9.4-9.5: Exception Handling and Coroutines - youtu.be/KGLd-4DRmrA
Learn about both in my latest Programming Language Pragmatics video!
PLP 9.4-9.5: Exception Handling and Coroutines - youtu.be/KGLd-4DRmrA
PLP 9.4-9.5: Exception Handling and Coroutines
YouTube video by Jonathan Aldrich
youtu.be
December 12, 2025 at 6:46 PM
Exceptions and coroutines support non-local control flow in programs--how does that work, and what are these constructs for?
Learn about both in my latest Programming Language Pragmatics video!
PLP 9.4-9.5: Exception Handling and Coroutines - youtu.be/KGLd-4DRmrA
Learn about both in my latest Programming Language Pragmatics video!
PLP 9.4-9.5: Exception Handling and Coroutines - youtu.be/KGLd-4DRmrA
What are the different parameter-passing modes? How do default and keyword parameters work? What about variable numbers of arguments?
Find out in my latest Programming Language Pragmatics talk!
PLP 9.3: Parameter Passing - youtu.be/OL-ReNegh3o
Find out in my latest Programming Language Pragmatics talk!
PLP 9.3: Parameter Passing - youtu.be/OL-ReNegh3o
December 10, 2025 at 1:22 PM
What are the different parameter-passing modes? How do default and keyword parameters work? What about variable numbers of arguments?
Find out in my latest Programming Language Pragmatics talk!
PLP 9.3: Parameter Passing - youtu.be/OL-ReNegh3o
Find out in my latest Programming Language Pragmatics talk!
PLP 9.3: Parameter Passing - youtu.be/OL-ReNegh3o
What goes into calling a function?
Find out in my latest Programming Language Pragmatics video, which introduces Chapter 9 (Subroutines and Control Abstractions) and discusses calling sequences, prologues, epilogues, and the System V AMD64 ABI calling convention.
Find out in my latest Programming Language Pragmatics video, which introduces Chapter 9 (Subroutines and Control Abstractions) and discusses calling sequences, prologues, epilogues, and the System V AMD64 ABI calling convention.
December 8, 2025 at 1:43 PM
What goes into calling a function?
Find out in my latest Programming Language Pragmatics video, which introduces Chapter 9 (Subroutines and Control Abstractions) and discusses calling sequences, prologues, epilogues, and the System V AMD64 ABI calling convention.
Find out in my latest Programming Language Pragmatics video, which introduces Chapter 9 (Subroutines and Control Abstractions) and discusses calling sequences, prologues, epilogues, and the System V AMD64 ABI calling convention.
Lists - a data type so flexible that it was the *only* composite data type in McCarthy's LISP!
Find out more about the list and file data types supported by various languages in my latest Programming Language Pragmatics video.
PLP 8.6-8.7: List and File Data Types - youtu.be/6NpiJ-6dUBU
Find out more about the list and file data types supported by various languages in my latest Programming Language Pragmatics video.
PLP 8.6-8.7: List and File Data Types - youtu.be/6NpiJ-6dUBU
PLP 8.6-8.7: List and File data types
YouTube video by Jonathan Aldrich
youtu.be
December 1, 2025 at 7:10 PM
Lists - a data type so flexible that it was the *only* composite data type in McCarthy's LISP!
Find out more about the list and file data types supported by various languages in my latest Programming Language Pragmatics video.
PLP 8.6-8.7: List and File Data Types - youtu.be/6NpiJ-6dUBU
Find out more about the list and file data types supported by various languages in my latest Programming Language Pragmatics video.
PLP 8.6-8.7: List and File Data Types - youtu.be/6NpiJ-6dUBU
Verification folks: when building a tool like Dafny or Verus, is there a strong technical reason to prefer backwards reasoning/weakest preconditions vs. forward reasoning/symbolic execution? Or are they more or less equivalent and it's just a matter of taste?
November 26, 2025 at 11:31 PM
Verification folks: when building a tool like Dafny or Verus, is there a strong technical reason to prefer backwards reasoning/weakest preconditions vs. forward reasoning/symbolic execution? Or are they more or less equivalent and it's just a matter of taste?
I'm doing a live Reddit AMA today at 2pm ET! Come ask me about PL, SE, the Master of Software Engineering program I run, Open Access at ACM, my music education startup Noteful, or my silly YouTube video outfits!
www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comme...
www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comme...
November 25, 2025 at 5:37 PM
I'm doing a live Reddit AMA today at 2pm ET! Come ask me about PL, SE, the Master of Software Engineering program I run, Open Access at ACM, my music education startup Noteful, or my silly YouTube video outfits!
www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comme...
www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comme...
How does Rust provide memory safety while giving programmers great performance and manual control of memory management?
The video that you've been waiting for is finally here:
PLP 8.5.5: Memory Management in Rust - youtu.be/YDEIZYPj0do
The video that you've been waiting for is finally here:
PLP 8.5.5: Memory Management in Rust - youtu.be/YDEIZYPj0do
November 24, 2025 at 9:44 PM
How does Rust provide memory safety while giving programmers great performance and manual control of memory management?
The video that you've been waiting for is finally here:
PLP 8.5.5: Memory Management in Rust - youtu.be/YDEIZYPj0do
The video that you've been waiting for is finally here:
PLP 8.5.5: Memory Management in Rust - youtu.be/YDEIZYPj0do
Pittsburgh folks: my daughter Evelyn is home from college and dancing with Bodiography Contemporary Ballet Company tonight at 7:30pm at the Kelly-Strayhorn Theater. Should be a great program! Tickets are available at kelly-strayhorn.org/events/bodio...
Bodiography Presents: Intersections - Kelly Strayhorn Theater
An evening of contemporary dance performed by Maria Caruso’s Bodiography.
kelly-strayhorn.org
November 22, 2025 at 7:12 PM
Pittsburgh folks: my daughter Evelyn is home from college and dancing with Bodiography Contemporary Ballet Company tonight at 7:30pm at the Kelly-Strayhorn Theater. Should be a great program! Tickets are available at kelly-strayhorn.org/events/bodio...
How does garbage collection work?
My latest programming language pragmatics video describes reference counting and tracing garbage collectors, along with variants such as mark-and-sweep, copying, generational, conservative, incremental, concurrent, & parallel collectors.
My latest programming language pragmatics video describes reference counting and tracing garbage collectors, along with variants such as mark-and-sweep, copying, generational, conservative, incremental, concurrent, & parallel collectors.
November 22, 2025 at 4:32 PM
How does garbage collection work?
My latest programming language pragmatics video describes reference counting and tracing garbage collectors, along with variants such as mark-and-sweep, copying, generational, conservative, incremental, concurrent, & parallel collectors.
My latest programming language pragmatics video describes reference counting and tracing garbage collectors, along with variants such as mark-and-sweep, copying, generational, conservative, incremental, concurrent, & parallel collectors.