An Introduction to F# and Database Design Fundamentals

It's the holiday season again but instead of snow dotNet Miami will be bringing you two great presentations. Microsoft developer evangelist David Crook will give us an introduction to F#. David will show us the relationship between F# and C# and when we would use each language. He'll also cover F# syntax, development strategies, and some F# design principals. Then dotNet Miami's own Will Tartak will show us some Database Design principals so that we can get the most out of our databases. Don't miss our end of year spectacular with these two awesome sessions.

And as always we'll have prizes at the end of the meeting. In addition the O'Reilly e-books and Pluralsight memberships we'll be giving away a free copy of Resharper from JetBrains!

New Location

We'll be meeting at the Microsoft Innovation Center at Venture Hive. The Microsoft Innovation Center in Miami (MIC Miami) is a state-of-the-art technology facility open to students, software developers, academic faculty, entrepreneurs, and startups for collaboration and skills development. Microsoft Innovation Center at Venture Hive is located at 1010 NE 2nd Ave Miami, FL 33132.

There's limited parking in front of Venture Hive. If that lot is full there's an empty lot directly behind the Venture Hive building.

Meeting Sponsor

F# - What Is It?

This session will be an introduction to F#. We will discuss the relationship between F# and C# as well as the places you would use each language for specific tasks. Beyond this we will do an introduction to F# syntax, coding, development strategy and a few design principals.

David Crook is a developer evangelist with Microsoft focused on Embedded Systems and Machine Learning. During his time as an evangelist, he has built several systems with F# including several which are pushing to production. Most projects David works on are IoT in nature.

Database Design Fundamentals for Developers

You get to a call from your client and they say “We need to track the information from this file” and they send you a print out. Then they say, “we need to track some other related data with the file’s data”. Can you do that? You say, sure! You go to your office and then what?

We are going to look at this scenario and what the file looks like. We’ll discuss some additional requirements and then design a database to match what you have been given. This will be a practical approach to designing database. We’ll discuss why the design should take a certain shape and finish with a completed database design.

Will Tartak is the founder and president of Visual Data Solutions, a software development firm in Miami, Florida. Will prides himself on exceeding client expectations with a hands-on approach. He founded Visual Data Solutions in 1990 and has been serving the technology needs of small and mid-sized South Florida businesses ever since. Visual Data Solutions serves a variety of industries including consumer products, insurance, government, and real estate.

Prior to founding Visual Data Solutions, Will launched his career at Midiland Studios in Miami, Florida. During his five years with the recording studio, he held the roles of Assistant Engineer, Recording Engineer and Studio Manager. Will is a graduate of Full Sail University in Recording Engineering.

Will lives in Miami, Florida. He is an active long distance athlete, and enjoys spending time with his family.