Lightning Talks

Mark your calendars! We are delighted that .NET Cardiff is returning in partnership with [Confused.com](https://www.confused.com/) on Thursday 19th September.

We can now confirm our two speakers for this month's event:

• Kevlin Henney will be exploring the evolution of programming languages. By looking back at the past, Kevlin will examine how current trends, from FOSS to LLMs, will shape programming languages and their use in the future.
• Andrew Poole shares his valuable insights into declaratively describing a chain or flow of async methods, which can then be used when handling API requests or messages from a service bus queue or actually anywhere.

TIMINGS
18:00 - Arrival
18:15 - Talk 1
19:00 - Pizza & Drinks
19:20 - Talk 2
20:00 - Close

TALKS

The Past, Present and Future of Programming Languages (Kevlin Henney)
Programming languages are a halfway house between the metal and the mind, a bridge between the world of circuits and the world of applications, the engineered and the social. Programming languages are the medium through which developers codify systems and fragments. In each programming language is embedded a philosophy (or many) of how to think about code, how to organise thoughts, how to design. Programming languages also define skillsets, ecosystems, jobs, loyalties and communities.
When we think of software and technology we often think in terms of progress and rapid change. Programming languages, however, typically move at a far slower pace. Mainstream languages are still embracing ideas that are decades old. Constructs that developers welcome as new to their language of choice are often older than the developers themselves. And over all this hangs the question, what of the future? How will current trends, from FOSS to LLMs, shape programming languages and their use? In this talk, we will take a tour of the past, present and future of programming languages.

Async method chaining in C# => super clear orchestration code (Andrew Poole)
What if there was a way to declaratively describe a chain or flow of async methods, which could be used when handling API requests or messages from a service bus queue or actually anywhere? Recently, while refactoring a growing piece of business logic, Andrew found a way to achieve this. The logical conclusion is that related flows can be described in one place, in a single piece of orchestration, which is very easy to understand, navigate and debug.

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