SPLASH - ACM SIGPLAN Conference

Table of Contents

Overview

SPLASH (Systems, Programming, Languages, and Applications: Software for Humanity) is the premier conference on programming languages and software engineering, incorporating OOPSLA (Object-Oriented Programming, Systems, Languages & Applications).

Attendance History

Year Location Format Key Highlights
2011 Portland, OR In-person First SPLASH (rebranded from OOPSLA)
2013 Indianapolis In-person  
2020 Virtual Online COVID-era virtual format
2023 Cascais, Portugal In-person Co-located with SLE, GPCE
2024 Pasadena, CA In-person  
2026 Oakland, CA Planned Co-located with ISSTA

Conference Tracks

OOPSLA (Object-Oriented Programming)

Core research track for programming language design and implementation.

Onward!

Forward-looking essays on software and programming.

SLE (Software Language Engineering)

Domain-specific languages and language workbenches.

GPCE (Generative Programming)

Code generation and metaprogramming.

DLS (Dynamic Languages Symposium)

Dynamic language implementation and optimization.

Workshops

  • SPLASH-E (Education)
  • VMIL (Virtual Machines)
  • META (Metaprogramming)
  • REBLS (Reactive and Event-Based Languages)

Key Themes Over Years

Language Design

  • Gradual typing evolution
  • Effect systems
  • Memory safety without garbage collection

Tooling

  • IDE advancements
  • Static analysis
  • Refactoring tools

Paradigms

  • Functional programming adoption
  • Actor models
  • Dataflow programming

Notable Talks Attended

2023 Highlights

  • Graal/Truffle performance advances
  • WebAssembly for language implementation
  • Dependent types in practice

2024 Highlights

  • LLM-assisted programming
  • Verified compilation
  • Green software engineering

Related Conferences

  • POPL - Principles of Programming Languages
  • ICFP - International Conference on Functional Programming
  • Strange Loop - (discontinued 2023)
  • PLDI - Programming Language Design and Implementation

Resources

Notes

SPLASH has been consistently excellent for:

  • Deep technical content on PL research
  • Exposure to cutting-edge language features
  • Networking with language implementers
  • Workshop participation opportunities

Author: Jason Walsh

j@wal.sh

Last Updated: 2026-01-10 15:20:15

build: 2026-04-17 18:32 | sha: 792b203