You don't need to program with callbacks: the meaning of I/O

Full title: You don't need to program with callbacks: the meaning of I/O and the design of an I/O manager.

Speaker: Paul Chiusano.

We will begin this talk by contemplating the nature of I/O: what does a program that performs I/O mean, and how can we model such a program? Using insights obtained from this pondering, we work up to the design of an I/O library which lets us write programs that use nonblocking, event-driven I/O, but does so without requiring explicit use of callbacks in its API.

hangout afterwards at Catalyst (300 Technology Square, by Main & Albany)

At MIT, allow extra time to find the room. Enter the Stata Center at 32 Vassar Street, opposite the sign for 43 Vassar Street. Take the elevator (under a sign saying "Alexander W Dreyfoos Building" to the fourth floor. (If you find yourself instead in the Gates Building part of the Stata Center, walk to the other end of the buildling to the Dreyfoos elevators). On the fourth floor, turn left out of the elevator and then right, through double doors, straight onto orange carpet, then right.

(building doors locked? wait a few minutes for someone to go in or out, or call Seth at 617-851-6406)