Functional Geekery

In this episode I talk with Simon Peyton Jones. I ask him about his background in Functional Programming, the growing popularity of Haskell, things he would like to bring into Haskell further, and his work with Computing At School. Our Guest, Simon Peyton Jones Simon Peyton Jones Topics Haskell Computer Science at School How Simon Peyton Jones got into Functional Programming SK Combinators Implementation of Functional Programming Languages (Amazon, online) Creation of Haskell Haskell as a Laboratory for Innovation Interview on Software Engineering Radio Core of Haskell as Lambda Calculus System F Growing Popularity of Haskell Hackage and Cabal Concurrency in Haskell Haskell as a part of an Ideas Pipeline and Exemplar “When the limestone of imperative programming is worn away the granite of functional programming will be revealed underneath” Static Typing in Haskell vs Weaker Type Systems Type Inference Incomplete programs Example 1: f x = sort _ ++ x Example 2: f x = funny_lib_fn _ _ _ Things thinking about for future of Haskell Refinement Types and Liquid Haskell Larger Scale Modularity in Haskell and Software Components Cloud Haskell Refinements Examples Example 1: f :: Int -> Int Example 2: f :: (x:Int) -> {y:Int | y > x } Example 3: g :: (x:Int -> {y:int | y>x}) -> … Combination of Modularity at Package Level with Refinement Types as part of Component Contract Bringing Computer Science as Subject Discipline to England National School Curriculum What the curriculum looks like Number of Programming Environments aimed at Children in School Logo Scratch Alice Kodu Greenfoot Blockly touchdevelop Programming is Only Part of Computer Science Computer Science Unplugged How to Participate at the Local Level Even Join Computing At School A giant Thank You to David Belcher for the logo design.

In this episode I talk with Paul Holser. We start out by talking about his junit-quickcheck project, being a life long learner and exploring ideas about computation from other languages, and what Java 8 is looking like in with the support of closures and lambdas. Our Guest, Paul Holser http://github.com/pholser @pholser on Twitter Topics The Container Store junit-quickcheck JUnit JUnit Theories Real World Haskell Haskell QuickCheck Prime Factors Kata Interest in trying to tackle shrinking for junit-quickcheck Bringing functional ideas back into Java Try to push the envelope of what you can do in a language Groovy Scala Clojure Being a life long student MOOCs (Massive Open Online Course) Coursera edX Why work in Java Being willing to suck at something to afford learning opportunities Ways to bring ideas from functional languages back to co-workers Guava Be gentle and persistent mockito How well Java 8 brings functional ideas back to Java Work to use lambdas as matchers in JUnit Hamcrest Single Abstract Method Types lambspec Steve Yegge’s Execution in the Kingdom of Nouns Support of closures and lambdas in Java 8 New Optional Type in Java 8 Dallas Area Java MUG at Improving Enterprises Coursera Courses and other MOOCs Functional Programming Principles in Scala on Coursera Principles of Reactive Programming on Coursera A giant Thank You to David Belcher for the logo design.

In this episode I talk with William Byrd. We talk about miniKanren and the differences between functional, logic and relational programming. We also cover the idea of thinking at higher levels of abstractions, and comparisons of relational programming to topics such as SQL, property testing, and code contracts. Our Guest, William Byrd http://webyrd.net/ http://github.com/webyrd @webyrd on Twitter and webyrd@gmail.com Topics U Combinator Lab miniKanren Will’s overview of how he got into LISP and Relational Programming Daniel Friedman and Indiana University Logic Programming Zebra Puzzle – Who owns the Zebra? Oleg Kiselyov The Reasoned Schemer Purely Relational Arithmetic System The Ability to Reorder Statements and Keep the Same Semantics Functional vs Logic vs Relational core.logic Interview of Will on InfoQ How Far Can We Get Being Purely Declarative Constraint Logic Programming Bob Harpers’ Post on Static vs Dynamic Typing Analogies Between Typing and Logic Programming Dependent Type Systems, e.g. Agda and Idris The Discovery of Functional Programming and Signs of Logic Programming Functional JavaScript by Fogus – (Note: There was Episode with Fogus on Functional JavaScript) Trying to Understand the Implementation of miniKanren to Understand Thinking Operationally The ability to be able to let go of implementation details and think at a more abstract level Pointers on Where to Dig Into Relational Programming miniKanren.org – For all things miniKanren Will’s Dissertation Scheme Workshop Paper Will is Working on a Book as Starting Place for Relational Programming The Art of Prolog Prolog Programming for Artificial Intelligence by Ivan Bratko Thanks to Everyone Who Has Worked on miniKanren Clojure/Conj and Strangeloop talks on miniKanren A giant Thank You to David Belcher for the logo design.

In this episode I talk with Jessica Kerr. In this episode we talk bringing functional programming concepts to object oriented languages; her experience in Scala, using the actor model, and property testing; and much more! Our Guest, Jessica Kerr jessitron.com @jessitron on Twitter and jessitron@gmail.com Topics Jessica’s ØreDev Talk Jessica’s Ruby Midwest Talk Bring Just Enough of the Ideas from Functional Programming Back to Java and C# Use Static/Class Level Methods to Make Needed Data Explicit Designate Methods That Modify State When Working in Object Oriented Languages Isolation as the Dual/Reverse to Encapsulation Guava library for Working in Java Readable Code vs Familiar Code Use Code Reviews to Spread Practices Scala as a Hybrid Language and the Blessings and Curses Therein Reasons One Might Choose Scala Akka Akka Concurrency by Derek Wyatt The Actor Model Testing with Scala Introducing a Functional Language by Writing Tests in that Language ScalaTest ScalaCheck Property Based Testing ScalaCheck: The Definitive Guide Commonalities Between Git and Functional Concepts Directed Acyclic Graphs Importance of Immutable Data in Functional Programming LambdaLounge F# Using a Functional Language to do Spikes to Solidify Ideas Kansas City Developer Conference Jessica’s Upcoming Appearances GOTO Chicago QCon New York 2014 scalaz-stream GOTO Amsterdam 2014 ScalaDays 2014 Scala Puzzlers Ribbon Farm A giant Thank You to David Belcher for the logo design. Update: May 6th 2014 Added link to Scala Puzzlers. Also, Jessica has informed me that she had to cancel her appearance at ScalaDays.

In this episode I talk with Angela Harms and Jason Felice about avi. We talk about the motivation of a vi implementation written in Clojure, the road map of where avi might used, and expressivity of code. Our Guests, Angela Harms and Jason Felice maitria Angela Harms: @angelaharms on Twitter and angela.harms@gmail.com Jason Felice: @eraserhd on Twitter and jason.m.felice@gmail.com avi on Github Topics Angela’s guest appearance on RubyRogues podcast Vim How Jason and Angela got into Clojure http://maitria.com/ avi Podcast with creator of VsVim Why pick Clojure to write avi in Greenspun’s Tenth rule but for vi plugins Midje Where the vision of avi is going Do not defeat a Vimmer’s muscle memory How Immutable state is helping cocos2d What might make a MVP for avi Midje and testing framework style Expressivity of the avi’s tests The example tests on github Angela and Jason’s obsessiveness on expressivity and Clojure’s impact on it 4clojure.com Issues and discussion about avi on github are much appreciated A giant Thank You to David Belcher for the logo design.

In this episode I talk with Reid Draper. We cover Reid’s intro to functional programming through Haskell, working in Erlang, distributed systems, and property testing; including his property testing tool simple-check, which has since made it into a Clojure contrib project as test.check. Our Guest, Reid Draper reiddraper.com @reiddraper on Twitter reiddraper on Github Topics Basho Riak and Riak CS Reid’s appearance on The Cognicast The Echo Nest Two camps of approaching learning a language, project based and learning the language for the language sake Learn You a Haskell for Great Good Papers on Haskell and ML to help learn functional programming Paxos and Raft papers Consensus Lamport papers Amazon Dynamo paper What about Erlang helps with building Distributed systems Messaging between nodes in Erlang The ability to debug live systems with Erlang Dealing with distributed systems that are not replicated The Eight Fallacies of Distributed Computing and Fallacies of Distributed Computing Explained “A static website with only one browser connected is a distributed system” Immutability and Eventual Consistency Importance of Idempotent commands in Distributed Systems Property Based Testing Quick Check Erlang Quick Check and Proper simple-check [It has since been moved to be Clojure contrib project as test.check] Thinking in Properties about functions Static vs Dynamic typing and Gradual typing core.typed by Ambrose Bonnaire-Sergeant Dialyzer from Kostis Sagonis Agda Idris “Learn one dynamically typed and one statically typed with a good type system” Typer for Erlang Webmachine Riak and RiakCS as example of large scale distribute/Erlang systems Haskell, Coq, Agda, Idris Implementation of Functional Programming Languages by Simon Peyton Jones A giant Thank You to David Belcher for the logo design.

In this episode I talk with Colin Jones, software craftsman at 8th Light. We cover Colin’s work on the Clojure Koans, making the transition from Ruby to Clojure, how functional programming affects the way he does object oriented design now, and his venture into learning Haskell. Our Guest, Colin Jones Colin on 8th Light Colin’s blog posts at 8th Light @trptcolin on Twitter trptcolin on github.com Topics 8th Light Colin’s background on getting into programming Clojure Koans Learning Clojure by writing the Clojure Koans Teaching as a way to learn Colin’s blog post Clojure Libs and Namespaces Colin’s blog post Quoting Without Confusion Clojure Doc site REPLy nREPL Leiningen Possible use of nREPL to connect to a live running system 8th Light’s experience with Clojure Pedestal Webmachine Liberator Using Object-Oriented constructs in Functional languages, and vice-versa Colin’s SOLID Clojure presentation Speclj clojure.test Midje Speclj works on ClojureScript as well ClojureScript Haskell exercism.io Learn You a Haskell for Great Good The other book that was recommended to Colin: Haskell: The Craft of Functional Programming Deliberate Practice with feedback Colin is writing a book on macros in Clojure from Pragmatic Press On Lisp by Paul Graham Let Over Lambda by Doug Hoyte David Nolen (@swannodette on Twitter) Concepts, Techniques, and Models of Computer Programming Michael Bernstein (@mrb_bk on Twitter) Michael Fogus (@fogus on Twitter) Out of the Tar Pit on CiteSeer Apprenticeship at 8th Light 8th Light University on Friday afternoons A giant Thank You to David Belcher for the logo design.

In this episode I talk with fellow podcaster Zach Kessin. We cover his background in software development and podcasting, the background of Erlang, process recovery, testing tools, as well as profiling live running systems in Erlang. Our Guest, Zach Kessin @zkessin on twitter zkessin on github.com Mostly Erlang @mostlyerlang on twitter Topics Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programs Programming HTML5 Applications Building Web Applications with Erlang Listing to podcasts as part of a commute 365 Days of Astronomy Mostly Erlang Ohio State University astronomy professor Richard Pogue and his lectures Zach’s episode of JavaScript Jabber Zotonic Background of Erlang Actor Model Erlang Links/Monitors Behaviors in Erlang Process Recovery in Erlang Riak Robert Virding Dialyzer Kostis Sagonis PropEr and Property Based Testing Episode 16 & Episode 27 of Mostly Erlang Concuerror Testing Erlang Moore’s Law is over and mega-cores are the future Immutability in Erlang Joe Armstrong Simon Peyton Jones Profiling Covering in Running Code webmachine webmachine diagram Mostly Erlang – 029 Teaching Kids to Code Ruby Rogues – 141 RR Teaching Kids with Ron Evans Introducing Erlang by Simon St. Laurent Learn You Some Erlang for Great Good Erlang Factory Chicago Boss A giant Thank You to David Belcher for the logo design.

In this episode I talk with Fogus, author of The Joy of Clojure and Functional JavaScript. We cover his history with functional languages, working with JavaScript in a functional style, and digging into the history of software development. Our Guest, Fogus fogus.me Topics Joy of Clojure Chris Houser Clojure.core Relevance (Now Cognitect) Missing the interesting conversations as part of Clojure.core team Core/async Fogus’ previous functional language experience What about Lisp appeals to Fogus Progression of Imperative to Functional to Logic programming Functional JavaScript Douglas Crockford Underscore Jeremy Ashkenas Ostrich purity Lemonad Bilby and Fantasy Land by Brian McKenna Structuring and organizing functional programs How to build your knowledge of the history of computing Reading for the Rushed Follow footnotes/bibliography/references 10 Technical Papers Every Programmer Should Read (At Least Twice) The History of Programming Languages Volume 2 A Programming Language by Kenneth Iverson APL Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programs (from Amazon.com) Any book written before 1990 Production Rule Systems in Clojure Infinite Jest House of Leaves A giant Thank You to David Belcher for the logo design.

In this episode I talk with fellow podcaster Craig Andera. We talk about working in Clojure, ClojureScript and Datomic, as well as making the transition to functional programming from C#, and working in Clojure on Windows. I also get him to give some recommendations on things he learned from guests on his podcast, The Cognicast. Our Guest, Craig Andera @craigandera Craig Andera Topics Cognitect Clojure Craig’s podcast, The Cognicast Mostly Lazy and Chas Emerick Making the transition from C# to Clojure Developmentor Stuart Holloway Justin Gehtland Relevance LINQ Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programs Gerald Sussman and Hal Abelson Out of the Tar Pit Design Patterns Some of the differences between Common Lisp and Scheme and Clojure ClojureScript Sharing code between Clojure and ClojureScript EDN and Reader Literals The “Holy Grail” of same language everywhere; client, server and database Rich Hickey’s Simple Made Easy Datomic Real-World Datomic: An Experience Report Room Key Datomic as an append only database Datalog The ease/difficulty of thinking about storing data in Datomic Amazon’s DynamoDB Tim Ewald Working back in DynamoDB after working with Datomic Developing in Clojure on Windows Cygwin XServer on Linux Virtual Machine in Windows Skype The Cognicast Good episodes for those unfamiliar with The Cognicast (formerly Think Relevance The Podcast) Maggie Litton on Think Relevance The Podcast Episode 46 Michael Nygard on Think Relevance The Podcast Episode Pick a random episode and listen Rich Hickey on core.async Design Implementation podcast Reid Draper talking about Haskell and Erlang Where to find Cognitects Clojure DC Reston Hack Nights Baltimore Clojure Craig’s Github page dynne core.async Tim Ewald’s Clojure/conj presentation Russ Olsen’s Clojure/conj presentation Cognitect team page A giant Thank You to David Belcher for the logo design.