ICOOOLPS 2026

The ICOOOLPS workshop series brings together researchers and practitioners working in the field of language implementation and optimization.

The goal of the workshop is to discuss emerging problems and research directions as well as new solutions to classic and novel implementation challenges. The topics of interest for the workshop include implementation and optimization strategies for a wide range of programming languages, including but not limited to object-oriented ones. Compiler retargeting, virtual machine implementations, and generative programming approaches are welcome too.

Call for Papers

The ICOOOLPS workshop series brings together researchers and practitioners working in the field of language implementation and optimization (even beyond the historical OO background of the workshop). The goal of the workshop is to discuss emerging problems and research directions, as well as new solutions and techniques.

We hope to provide a space for participation and discussion and in particular to bring up burgeoning ideas and work in progress. Such contributions can be submitted as position papers or short (aka lightning) talks. Similar to last year, we will once again accept a new kind of submissions: code walks!

A non-exclusive list of topics of interest for ICOOOLPS includes:

• Implementation and optimization of fundamental languages features (from memory management to metaprogramming)
• Abstraction lowering and representation techniques (exceptions, concurrency, capabilities, …)
• Runtime systems technology (libraries, virtual machines)
• Compilation tools, techniques, and libraries for language interoperability
• Static, adaptive, and speculative optimizations and compiler techniques
• Meta-compilation techniques and language-agnostic approaches for the efficient implementation of languages
• Compiler toolchains (intermediate representations, offline and online optimizations,…)
• Compiler retargeting (e.g., retargeting existing compilers to WebAssembly, Javascript, LLVM, Ethereum, …)
• Resource-sensitive systems (real-time, low power, mobile, cloud)
• Power-efficient code and compiler techniques for generating power-efficient code
• Studies on design choices and tradeoffs (dynamic vs. static compilation, heuristics vs. programmer input, …)
• Tooling support, debuggability and observability of languages as well as their implementations
• Empirical studies on language usage, benchmark design, and benchmarking methodology
• The use of VMs in teaching programming and programming languages

Workshop Format

The workshop welcomes the presentation and discussion of new ideas and emerging problems. We aim to provide an environment to present and discuss your work at different stages of maturity. Therefore, we provide four submission categories (page limits are only enforced for the camera ready version):

• Full papers (up to 12 pages), which will be included in the proceedings;
• Position papers (up to 4 pages), for work in progress, ideas in early stages;
• Code walks and demonstrations, for diving into concrete implementation details involving interesting approaches. Code walks and demonstrations should be submitted as 1-page abstracts describing their contents, which will be evaluated on their relevance and suitability for the workshop’s audience and venue.
• Lightning talk (~5 min), for sharing burgeoning thought-provoking ideas. Lightning talks should be submitted with a title and short (~1 paragraph) abstract.

All accepted submissions except lighting talks are expected to be presented in a 30-minute slot. The accepted papers will be published in the ACM Digital Library, though authors will be able to opt out of this publication, if desired. At least one author of an accepted paper must register for the workshop and attend the event to present the work, and participate in the discussions.

Submission Guidelines

To welcome diverse contributions—including papers previously submitted elsewhere or works that may be too early-stage for larger venues—we accept submissions in any format, provided the paper is clear and accessible to reviewers.

There is no page limit on submissions, but reviewers have a fixed time budget, so brevity is a virtue. Please note that the camera-ready version will be subject to a page limit in the ACM sigplan format, based on the type of submission.

Camera-Ready Format

Accepted papers must be formatted according to the guidelines for ACM sigplan papers (\documentclass[sigplan,screen]{acmart}), see https://www.sigplan.org/Resources/Author/ for details.

How to Submit

Submissions should be made via Easychair using the following link:

https://easychair.org/conferences/?conf=icooolps26

The accepted papers will be published in the ACM Digital Library, though authors will be able to opt out of this publication, if desired. At least one author of an accepted paper must register for the workshop and attend the event to present the work, and participate in the discussions.

For additional information, clarification, or answers to questions, contact the program chairs.