Numeric Programming with Spire with Lars Hupel

Numeric Programming with Spire with Lars Hupel

Spire is a Scala library for fast, generic, and precise numerics. It allows us to write generic numeric algorithms, provides the ‘number tower’ and offers a lot of utilities you didn’t know you needed.

Numeric programming is a notoriously difficult topic. For number crunching, e.g. solving systems of linear equations, we need raw performance. However, using floating-point numbers may lead to inaccurate results. On top of that, in functional programming, we’d really like to abstract over concrete number types, which is where abstract algebra comes into play. This interplay between abstract and concrete and the fact that everything needs to run on finite hardware is what makes good library support necessary for writing fast & correct programs. Spire is such a library in the Typelevel Scala ecosystem. This talk will be an introduction to Spire, showcasing the ‘number tower’, real-ish numbers and how to obey the law.

Speaker
Lars is a consultant with INNOQ in Munich, Germany. He has been using Scala for quite a while now and is known as one of the founders of the Typelevel initiative which is dedicated to providing principled, type-driven Scala libraries in a friendly, welcoming environment. He is known to be a frequent conference speaker and active in the open source community, particularly in Scala. He also enjoys programming in and talking about Haskell, Prolog, and Rust.

Technicalities

• INNOQ is located within the WeWork Europapassage, on the 7th floor. Use the entrance in Hermannstraße 13 and take the elevator to "O7".

• The place is accessible by wheelchair and has a wheelchair-friendly bathroom.

• There will be some drinks (water, fruit-infused water, beer).

• Agenda:
  18:00 Get together
  19:00 - 20:00 Lars' Talk
  20:00 - 21:00 Discussions, Networking
  21:00 End (WeWork asks us to have everybody leave by that time)