Commercial Users of Functional Programming Workshop (CUFP) 2008

Functional Programming As a Means, Not an End

Call for Presentations

Sponsored by SIGPLAN
Co-located with ICFP 2008

Presentation proposals due 2 June 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. Providing user feedback to language designers and implementors is not a primary goal of the workshop, though it will be welcome if it occurs.

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 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>
  • 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; see CUFP 2004 CUFP 2005, CUFP 2006, and CUFP 2007 for information about the earlier meetings. Reports from attendees describing the 2004, 2005, 2006 and 2007 workshops are available for download.

26 March 2008