[Haskell] A chance to share your experience

[Simon Peyton-Jones]

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 <lennart (dot) augustsson (at) gmail (dot) com>
     * Matthias Blume <blume (at) tti-c (dot) org>
     * Adam Granicz <granicz (dot) adam (at) intellifactory (dot) com>
     * Jim Grundy (co-chair) <jim (dot) d (dot) grundy (at) intel (dot) com>
     * John Lalonde <lalonde (at) abstrax (dot) com>
     * Andy Martin <akmartin (at) us (dot) ibm (dot) com>
     * Yaron Minsky <yminsky (at) janestcapital (dot) com>
     * Simon Peyton Jones (co-chair) <simonpj (at) microsoft (dot) com>
     * Ulf Wiger <ulf (dot) wiger (at) ericsson (dot) com>

   This will be the fifth CUFP, for more information - including reports
   from attendees of previous events - see the workshop web site:
   http://cufp.functionalprogramming.com