Laurence Tratt
@ltratt.bsky.social
Shopify / Royal Academy of Engineering Research Chair in Language Engineering. https://tratt.net/laurie/
If you're thinking of applying to PLISS, you've got three days left! pliss.org/2026/registr...
January 22, 2026 at 2:59 PM
If you're thinking of applying to PLISS, you've got three days left! pliss.org/2026/registr...
A first: I awoke to a PR on one of the Rust projects I maintain that results from a proposed fix to a rustc oversight. Our code should never have compiled, IMHO, so the rustc fix is a good one!
For those interested in the rustc change: github.com/rust-lang/ru...
For those interested in the rustc change: github.com/rust-lang/ru...
January 20, 2026 at 9:16 AM
A first: I awoke to a PR on one of the Rust projects I maintain that results from a proposed fix to a rustc oversight. Our code should never have compiled, IMHO, so the rustc fix is a good one!
For those interested in the rustc change: github.com/rust-lang/ru...
For those interested in the rustc change: github.com/rust-lang/ru...
When I read Walter Bagehot's (d. 1877) "The English Constitution" years ago, I was surprised at how much time he spent contrasting it to the US constitution. I now realise he had thought deeply about the plausible futures of both and how they could adapt and/or go wrong.
January 19, 2026 at 1:01 PM
When I read Walter Bagehot's (d. 1877) "The English Constitution" years ago, I was surprised at how much time he spent contrasting it to the US constitution. I now realise he had thought deeply about the plausible futures of both and how they could adapt and/or go wrong.
I've never been a fan of debuggers. Examining the state at the point of a crash rarely helps me: the problem is nearly always earlier in time. `printf` is more useful to follow the trail forwards.
January 15, 2026 at 11:27 AM
I've never been a fan of debuggers. Examining the state at the point of a crash rarely helps me: the problem is nearly always earlier in time. `printf` is more useful to follow the trail forwards.
A reminder for those interested in PLISS 2026: there are 10 days left to register your interest. pliss.org/2026/registr...
January 15, 2026 at 8:58 AM
A reminder for those interested in PLISS 2026: there are 10 days left to register your interest. pliss.org/2026/registr...
Even though I know from past experience how important it can be to avoid small memory allocations in performance critical code, the measurable effect of removing them still often surprises me.
January 14, 2026 at 9:49 AM
Even though I know from past experience how important it can be to avoid small memory allocations in performance critical code, the measurable effect of removing them still often surprises me.
I was recently asked how I choose what podcasts I listen to, and paused. Then I realised it's similar to how I choose what to read. In particular, for current affairs, I actively try to avoid just reinforcing my current opinions. I think this has helped make me wrong less often!
January 12, 2026 at 7:08 PM
I was recently asked how I choose what podcasts I listen to, and paused. Then I realised it's similar to how I choose what to read. In particular, for current affairs, I actively try to avoid just reinforcing my current opinions. I think this has helped make me wrong less often!
Low-needle-drop Christmas trees are willing to delay their revenge: they wait until you remove them from the house before dropping dry, sharp, needles everywhere.
January 9, 2026 at 9:01 AM
Low-needle-drop Christmas trees are willing to delay their revenge: they wait until you remove them from the house before dropping dry, sharp, needles everywhere.
A few weeks ago I gave a talk "Some Things I've Learned About Software" that was unusual for me. I didn't program in it once. I didn't mention specific technologies. Instead I tried to look at the high-level things about software that I've slowly understood. www.youtube.com/watch?v=RJgD...
January 8, 2026 at 12:13 PM
A few weeks ago I gave a talk "Some Things I've Learned About Software" that was unusual for me. I didn't program in it once. I didn't mention specific technologies. Instead I tried to look at the high-level things about software that I've slowly understood. www.youtube.com/watch?v=RJgD...
More PLISS speakers announced! pliss.org/2026/
January 6, 2026 at 9:17 AM
More PLISS speakers announced! pliss.org/2026/
I can't quite believe that we're now announcing the eighth Programming Language Implementation Summer School (PLISS), but we are --- in May next year, if you want to learn more about programming language implementations, this is the place to come!
December 18, 2025 at 4:02 PM
I can't quite believe that we're now announcing the eighth Programming Language Implementation Summer School (PLISS), but we are --- in May next year, if you want to learn more about programming language implementations, this is the place to come!
email has many detractors -- and I certainly grumble from time to time when I'm ploughing my way through mine -- but we still haven't come up with a sufficiently superior option for asynchronous communication that would make the pain of transition worth it.
December 9, 2025 at 8:52 AM
email has many detractors -- and I certainly grumble from time to time when I'm ploughing my way through mine -- but we still haven't come up with a sufficiently superior option for asynchronous communication that would make the pain of transition worth it.
For those interested in hearing me waffle about software in a public talk this Thursday in London, there's still a few hours left to register!
www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/informatic...
www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/informatic...
November 25, 2025 at 8:22 AM
For those interested in hearing me waffle about software in a public talk this Thursday in London, there's still a few hours left to register!
www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/informatic...
www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/informatic...
This year's weather has apparently decided it's not going to muck around with any of that nonsense in the 5-12C range. On the plus side, some of my "summer" walks are doable again and they look lovely in the cold mornings!
November 20, 2025 at 8:51 AM
This year's weather has apparently decided it's not going to muck around with any of that nonsense in the 5-12C range. On the plus side, some of my "summer" walks are doable again and they look lovely in the cold mornings!
Amongst the pleasures of living in Somerset is our village and street names. On Sunday, for example, I cycled through Gurney Slade and up Binegar Bottom. Note: I have checked this message carefully for typos.
November 18, 2025 at 7:46 PM
Amongst the pleasures of living in Somerset is our village and street names. On Sunday, for example, I cycled through Gurney Slade and up Binegar Bottom. Note: I have checked this message carefully for typos.
This weekend my wife wanted to watch a film called The Princess Bride. I hadn't heard of it. I was thus, to put it mildly, surprised to gradually realise that it has generated as many widespread memes as franchises seemingly 100x better known!
November 17, 2025 at 8:36 PM
This weekend my wife wanted to watch a film called The Princess Bride. I hadn't heard of it. I was thus, to put it mildly, surprised to gradually realise that it has generated as many widespread memes as franchises seemingly 100x better known!
New post: "Async and finaliser deadlocks", based on an accidental poke from a recent episode of the excellent @oxide.computer podcast tratt.net/laurie/blog/...
November 12, 2025 at 11:28 AM
New post: "Async and finaliser deadlocks", based on an accidental poke from a recent episode of the excellent @oxide.computer podcast tratt.net/laurie/blog/...
Somewhat delayed because of Covid, I'm finally going to give my "inaugural lecture", which is a short, hopefully accessible, public talk: in my case "Some things I've learned about software"! All are welcome!
November 7, 2025 at 10:42 AM
Somewhat delayed because of Covid, I'm finally going to give my "inaugural lecture", which is a short, hopefully accessible, public talk: in my case "Some things I've learned about software"! All are welcome!
One thing pizauth could really do with is zsh completion: we have bash and fish but not yet zsh. PRs welcome! github.com/ltratt/pizau...
October 30, 2025 at 4:53 PM
One thing pizauth could really do with is zsh completion: we have bash and fish but not yet zsh. PRs welcome! github.com/ltratt/pizau...
New post: "What Context Can Bring to Terminal Mouse Clicks", explaining how one can click on filenames with line numbers in my terminal and have the "correct" editor instance jump to that file and line. A hack, or pragmatic use of existing tools? You decide! tratt.net/laurie/blog/...
October 29, 2025 at 2:06 PM
New post: "What Context Can Bring to Terminal Mouse Clicks", explaining how one can click on filenames with line numbers in my terminal and have the "correct" editor instance jump to that file and line. A hack, or pragmatic use of existing tools? You decide! tratt.net/laurie/blog/...
grmtools-0.14.0 is out github.com/softdevteam/... -- mostly "quality of life" changes that e.g. make understanding errors easier, but there are a few minor breaking changes that meant the version bump was necessary.
October 22, 2025 at 7:55 PM
grmtools-0.14.0 is out github.com/softdevteam/... -- mostly "quality of life" changes that e.g. make understanding errors easier, but there are a few minor breaking changes that meant the version bump was necessary.
I've been using Alacritty for a fair while, but a very useful feature doesn't seem likely to be accepted (github.com/alacritty/al...) so it's time to move on. I need a modern terminal which run commands on matched text and sends me the terminal title. Any suggestions?
October 22, 2025 at 3:32 PM
I've been using Alacritty for a fair while, but a very useful feature doesn't seem likely to be accepted (github.com/alacritty/al...) so it's time to move on. I need a modern terminal which run commands on matched text and sends me the terminal title. Any suggestions?
As someone who came to modal editing rather late, I'm still unsure whether it's a good idea -- but I'm used to it now! This post has an interesting argument, pointing out how few programs are modal, and what we might learn from that. buttondown.com/hillelwayne/...
Modal editing is a weird historical contingency we have through sheer happenstance
If vi didn't exist, it would not have been invented.
buttondown.com
October 22, 2025 at 9:47 AM
As someone who came to modal editing rather late, I'm still unsure whether it's a good idea -- but I'm used to it now! This post has an interesting argument, pointing out how few programs are modal, and what we might learn from that. buttondown.com/hillelwayne/...
Are there any benchmarks (etc) which show the costs of the SysV x64 ABI relative to a somewhat-or-perfectly-optimal ABI for that program? [Not for single microbenchmarks, because I can definitely create horrible overheads there, but on larger programs / benchmarks.]
October 20, 2025 at 3:22 PM
Are there any benchmarks (etc) which show the costs of the SysV x64 ABI relative to a somewhat-or-perfectly-optimal ABI for that program? [Not for single microbenchmarks, because I can definitely create horrible overheads there, but on larger programs / benchmarks.]
Although I'd prefer it if the trees stayed green all year around, if the leaves are going to fall, I'm rather happy that they do so in such a colourful way. It brings a new way of looking at old favourites.
October 19, 2025 at 7:51 AM
Although I'd prefer it if the trees stayed green all year around, if the leaves are going to fall, I'm rather happy that they do so in such a colourful way. It brings a new way of looking at old favourites.