Commercial Users of Functional Programming Workshop (CUFP) 2009

Functional Programming As a Means, Not an End

Call for Presentations

Sponsored by SIGPLAN
Co-located with ICFP 2009

Edinburgh, Scotland, 4 September 2009

Presentation proposals due 15 May 2009

Web site: http://cufp.galois.com

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.

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 25 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! Talks on the practical application of functional programming with a primarily technical focus may also be appropriate for the adjacent DEFUN 2009 event.

If you are interested in offering a talk, or nominating someone to do so, send an e-mail to francesco(at)erlang-consulting(dot)com or jim(dot)d(dot)grundy(at)intel(dot)com by 15 May 2009 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 2009 will last a full day and feature a keynote presentation from Bryan O'Sullivan, co-author of Real World Haskell. The program will also 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.

• Francesco Cesarini (co-chair) <francesco(at)erlang-consulting(dot)com>
• Manuel Chakravarty <chak(at)cse(dot)unsw(dot)edu(dot)au>
• Kathleen Fisher <kfisher(at)research(dot)att(dot)com>
• Jim Grundy (co-chair) <jim(dot)d(dot)grundy(at)intel(dot)com>
• John Hughes <john(dot)hughes(at)quviq(dot)com>
• Nick Levine <ndl(at)ravenbrook(dot)com>
• Anil Madhavapeddy <anil(at)recoil(dot)org>
• Laura McKinney <laura(at)galois(dot)com>
• Yaron Minsky <yminsky(at)janestcapital(dot)com>
• David Pollak <feeder(dot)of(dot)the(dot)bears(at)gmail(dot)com>
• Ganesh Sittampalam <ganesh(dot)sittampalam(at)credit-suisse(dot)com>
• Ulf Wiger <ulf(dot)wiger(at)ericsson(dot)com>

This will be the sixth CUFP, for more information – including reports from attendees of previous events and video of recent talks – see the workshop web site: http://cufp.galois.com/

10 April 2009