Upcoming AFP Talk

Copying an AFP Talk announcement here. All are welcome, members or not. If you are unfamiliar with Orc, you can do some reading on its homepage. Announcement follows …

I am pleased to welcome Thomas Finsterbusch to speak to us. He will
be giving us an introductory talk on Orc with a focus on web service
integration. I think this will be a very interesting topic for both
students and professionals. People of any background and skill level
are welcome, of course. If there is sufficient interest, the talk may
be followed up with a social at a nearby pub.

My understanding is that parking on campus in “C” parking spots is
open during this time. Also many spaces on San Jacinto, as well as
metered spots north and west of campus will be free during the talk
(thanks to Adrian for that helpful information).

Event: Austin Functional Programmers Talk

Date: June 1, 2008

Time: 4:00pm

Location: Taylor Hall, 3.128 (http://www.utexas.edu/maps/main/buildings/tay.html )

(University of Texas)

Speaker: Thomas Finsterbusch

Thomas Finsterbusch is a 2nd-year PhD student at the University of
Texas at Austin, currently working on webservices integration in Orc.
His research interests cover data mining, artificial intelligence, and
programming languages, and his industry experience includes web
application development at Google, Amazon, and Intuit.

AFP Discussion Group

AFP will be meeting at the Spider House coffee shop Sunday (20th) at 4pm for a topics discussion. Anyone is welcome, from functional programming beginners to experts.

2008 Predictions

Ehud Lamm posted a request for PL predictions in 2008. I can’t help but wonder what will happen … but as far as the functional aspects of programming languages go, there are several things I would like to see in 2008. I have to decided to list these in the form of future blog titles … let’s see how many of them actually come true.

Austin Functional Programmers grows by an order of magnitude.

Jon Harrop completes and publishes F# for Scientists 2 months ahead of schedule

Real World Haskell gets completed and is followed by a wave Haskell enthusiasm in the professional programmer community. Haskell jobs are plentiful.

I finally have an explanation for monads that doesn’t require further explanation.

I tell people that I am a professional functional programmer, and no awkward silence follows.

What would you like to see happen?

New Austin Functional Programmers Group in 2008

In his talk at CUFP Noel Welsh made a great point about conferences in functional programming being too high of a bar for people with a basic curiosity (or even skepticism) about functional programming (especially in a commercial domain). I think that small groups of people, whose agenda is simple to get together and spend some time with this subject, are an important piece of our future.

Groups like the Bay Area Functional Programmers and London Haskell Users have made great examples. Here in Austin, we will be forming the Austin Functional Programmers group. I would like this group to be an opportunity for those in this city who are interested in commercial applications of functional languages to meet others. This group will be a forum where beginners, skeptics and experts will have an opportunity to come together. I expect it will start out as a low commitment for people, and can be flexible as the level of interest becomes clear.

If you would like to sign up to the email list over the holiday break, please go to

http://groups.google.com/group/austin-fp/subscribe

I will be sending out a message just after the new year about a first meeting.

I encourage you to contact me, or go to the email list to sign up if you are interested. If there is anything specific you would like to see in a group like this, don’t hesitate to mention it.

Happy Holidays!
Chance