Tomáš Petříček: Writing tiny programming systems in F#

Programming systems like Smalltalk demonstrated in the 1970s that programming can be interactive, accessible and based on user-friendly graphical user interfaces. So, why do we still program mostly by writing code in complex programming languages? In my research and also teaching, I want to show that programming could look different today.

But how do you show what a different programming systems might look like when all you have is one person and a couple of evenings? In this talk, I will show how I use F# in my work - to prototype interactive and stateful programming systems, reconstruct past programming experiences and also show our students that there are interesting alternative ways of thinking about programming!

If you want to get a sneak peek at what the talk will be about, check out:

* Write your own tiny programming system(s) course
* The Lost Ways of Programming: Commodore 64 BASIC
* Histogram: You have to know the past to understand the present

Tomáš Petříček is an assistant professor at MFF UK. He is interested in stateful, interactive and visual programming systems, new ways of thinking about programming that make it easier and more accessible, as well as the history and philosophy of computing. Previously, he worked on novel tools for data exploration and visualization, contributed to the F# language and type providers at Microsoft Research and obtained PhD from University of Cambridge for his work on coeffects, a theory of context-aware programming languages. He also wrote an F# to JavaScript compiler before it was cool.

Personal homepage: http://tomasp.net/

About the event:
18:30 The space is open
19:00 Start of the main event
2x:00 Questions and answers, networking
2y:00 Afterparty and more questions in a pub in cozy Vinohrady neighbourhood.