pldi-writing-style
Use when revising a PLDI draft for the venue's voice — design insight before tool name, mechanisms instead of adjectives, a running example that carries the semantics, honest limitation statements, and prose that fits the single-column acmsmall journal format without padding toward the page cap.
Profile →npx skills add brycewang-stanford/Awesome-Journal-Skills --skill pldi-writing-style --agent claude-code
Same command for any agent — swap --agent for codex, cursor, copilot.
Weekly change comes from our own snapshots, not the repository page — it measures attention, not adoption.
# PLDI Writing Style A PLDI paper is an engineering argument written for people who will try to break it. The style that survives has three habits: it states the *hard case* before the solution, it explains *mechanisms* rather than accumulating adjectives, and it scopes every claim to exactly what the evaluation shows. Since the PACMPL switch, the published object is a journal article in single-column `acmsmall` — roomier lines than the old two-column look, but the same conference-grade cap on text pages, so the format rewards clarity, not length. ## The first-page contract By the end of page one a reviewer should be able to answer four questions: 1. **What breaks today?** The concrete program, workload, or proof burden that existing techniques mishandle — shown, ideally, as a small code example. 2. **What is the insight?** One sentence a compiler writer could act on ("summarize modules by polymorphic escape signatures"), not a property wish ("fast and precise"). 3. **Does it exist?** The implementation substrate — which compiler, which IR, which proof assistant. 4. **What is the headline evidence?** The number, with its suite and baseline attached, plus the paper's stated limit. T
- The first-page contract
- Style table: draft reflex → PLDI voice
- The running example discipline
- Claim ledger
- Sentence-level habits
- Output format
What does the pldi-writing-style skill do?
Use when revising a PLDI draft for the venue's voice — design insight before tool name, mechanisms instead of adjectives, a running example that carries the semantics, honest limitation statements, and prose that fits the single-column acmsmall journal format without padding toward the page cap.
How do I install it?
Run `npx skills add brycewang-stanford/Awesome-Journal-Skills --skill pldi-writing-style --agent claude-code` — it drops the skill into your project so the agent can pick it up. Swap the --agent value for codex, cursor or copilot if you use one of those.
Where does this skill come from?
From brycewang-stanford/Awesome-Journal-Skills, a repository with 909 stars. We read it straight from the repository tree rather than a submitted listing, so what you see here is what is actually published.
Is a popular skill a good skill?
Not necessarily. Stars measure attention, not adoption — a repository can trend for a week and be abandoned. That is why we show the weekly change from our own snapshots next to the total, instead of a single flattering number.