[PL-Seminar] Talk: Don Syme on F#

Place and time: 25.3.2009, 13:00-15:00 in DI-5510.104 (IT-huset Lille Aud)

Speaker: Don Syme from Microsoft Research

Bio: Don Syme is a Senior Research at Microsoft Research, UK, and is responsible for the design of the F# programming language. He has contributed extensively to the design of the .NET platform through the design and implementation of .NET and C# generics. His research focuses on the technical aspects of programming language design and implementation needed to make functional languages that are simpler to use, interoperate well with other languages and which incorporate aspects of object-oriented, asynchronous and parallel programming. He has a PhD from the University of Cambridge and a BSc. from the Australian National University.

Abstract: Microsoft recently announced that it is supporting F# as a first class language in Visual Studio 2010. We will first look at why Microsoft is investing in functional programming at all, through the themes of simplicity, economics and programmer satisfaction. We'll also take a look at who uses F#, why, and what they gain from it.

The majority of the talk will be more technical and look at the more innovative aspects of F# that help to simplify programming. In particular F# extends the familiar core of a functional programming language design (shared with OCaml) with the following

- Type-inferred object-oriented programming
- Computation expressions ("monads"), particularly for asynchronous, parallel and reactive programming
- Units of measure, a "type system for floating point numbers"
- F# Quotations, for language integrated models

We'll look at these in overview and why they have been added to the language. Along the way I'll give some simple demonstrations of using F# for explorative programming.

URL: http://research.microsoft.com/en-us/people/dsyme
URL: http://research.microsoft.com/fsharp

Host: Olivier Danvy

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