SPLASH 2025
Sun 12 - Sat 18 October 2025 Singapore
co-located with ICFP/SPLASH 2025
Thu 16 Oct 2025 14:25 - 15:05 at Peony SE - Onward! Essays 1 Chair(s): Michael Coblenz

Unix and Smalltalk are very different in the details, but bear curious similarities in their broad outlines. Prior work has made these comparisons at a high level and sketched a path for retrofitting Smalltalk’s advantages onto Unix (without compromising the advantages of the latter). Everybody seems to agree on identifying the Unix file with the Smalltalk object, but this still leaves much unspecified. I argue that we should identify the Unix executable with the Smalltalk method. A Smalltalk VM implementation via the filesystem falls out quite easily from this premise; however, the severe overhead associated with Unix processes casts doubt on its practical realisation. Nevertheless, we can see several ways around this problem. The connection shows promise for realising the benefits of Smalltalk within Unix without sequestering the former in a hermetically sealed image and VM.

Thu 16 Oct

Displayed time zone: Perth change

13:45 - 15:30
Onward! Essays 1Onward! Essays / Onward! Papers at Peony SE
Chair(s): Michael Coblenz University of California, San Diego
13:45
40m
Short-paper
The Proof Must Go On: Formal Methods in the Theater of Secure Software Development of the FutureRemote
Onward! Essays
Charles Averill University of Texas at Dallas
DOI Pre-print
14:25
40m
Talk
The Unix Executable as a Smalltalk Method
Onward! Essays
Joel Jakubovic Charles University in Prague
DOI Pre-print