Friends
I know for a fact that many of you are using Haskell successfully for real applications. Yet none of you have sent me an offer of a presentation at the Commercial Users of Functional Programming workshop, which happens in late Sept. I'm the program co-chair, and I confidently expecting several Haskell offers... but not one so far. I am sad. I am very sad.
Make me happy! I'm sure you are very busy making your business work. But think what fun it'd be to share your experience with others, meet other people with similar experiences, recruit bright students to your company...
Happily, there is still time. The deadline for offers is 2nd June. All we need by then is a short summary of what you think you might say. You don't have to write a paper (not now, not ever). Your presentation does not have to be highly technical. On the contrary, the emphasis is on the process issues that surround functional programming: convincing management, changes to software development, testing, benefits, costs, successes, concerns.
I'm going to the Lake District for a week's holiday next week (it's half term in the UK). Please send me a lovely full mailbox to come back to. The CFP is below, and at http://cufp.galois.com/.
best wishes
Simon
Commercial Users of Functional Programming Workshop (CUFP) 2008
26 September 2008, Victoria, British Columbia
============== CALL FOR PRESENTATIONS ======================
Presentation proposals due 2 June 2008
http://cufp.functionalprogramming.com
Functional Programming As a Means, Not an End
Sponsored by SIGPLAN
Co-located with ICFP 2008 _________________________________________________________________
Functional languages have been under academic development for over 25
years, and remain fertile ground for programming language research.
Recently, however, developers in industrial, governmental, and open
source projects have begun to use functional programming successfully
in practical applications. In these settings, functional programming
has often provided dramatic leverage, including whole new ways of
thinking about the original problem.
The goal of the CUFP workshop is to act as a voice for these users of
functional programming. The workshop supports the increasing viability
of functional programming in the commercial, governmental, and
open-source space by providing a forum for professionals to share
their experiences and ideas, whether those ideas are related to
business, management, or engineering. The workshop is also designed to
enable the formation and reinforcement of relationships that further
the commercial use of functional programming.
Speaking at CUFP
If you use functional programming as a means, rather than as an end,
we invite you to offer to give a talk at the workshop. Alternatively,
if you know someone who would give a good talk, please nominate them!
Talks are typically 30-45 minutes long, but can be shorter. They aim
to inform participants about how functional programming played out in
real-world applications, focusing especially on the re-usable lessons
learned, or insights gained. Your talk does not need to be highly
technical; for this audience, reflections on the commercial,
management, or software engineering aspects are, if anything, more
important. You do not need to submit a paper!
If you are interested in offering a talk, or nominating someone to do
so, send an e-mail to jim (dot) d (dot) grundy (at) intel (dot) com or
simonpj (at) microsoft (dot) com by 2 June 2008 with a short
description of what you'd like to talk about or what you think your
nominee should give a talk about. Such descriptions should be about
one page long.
Program Plans
CUFP 2008 will last a full day and feature an invited presentation
from Michael Hopcroft, the product unit manager for the forthcoming
release of Microsoft Visual Studio F#. Additionally, the program
will include a mix of presentations and discussion sessions. Topics
will range over a wide area, including:
* Case studies of successful and unsuccessful uses of functional
programming;
* Business opportunities and risks from using functional languages;
* Enablers for functional language use in a commercial setting;
* Barriers to the adoption of functional languages, and
* Mitigation strategies for overcoming limitations of functional
programming.
There will be no published proceedings, as the meeting is intended to
be more a discussion forum than a technical interchange.
Program Committee
* Lennart Augustsson