Functional Programming As a Means, Not an End

                           Call for Presentations

                          Sponsored by SIGPLAN
                        Co-located with ICFP 2008
     _________________________________________________________________

                 Presentation proposals due 2 June 2008

                 http://cufp.functionalprogramming.com
     _________________________________________________________________

   Functional languages have been under academic development for over
25
   years, and remain fertile ground for programming language research.
   Recently, however, developers in industrial, governmental, and open
   source projects have begun to use functional programming
successfully
   in practical applications. In these settings, functional
programming
   has often provided dramatic leverage, including whole new ways of
   thinking about the original problem.

   The goal of the CUFP workshop is to act as a voice for these users
of
   functional programming. The workshop supports the increasing
viability
   of functional programming in the commercial, governmental, and
   open-source space by providing a forum for professionals to share
   their experiences and ideas, whether those ideas are related to
   business, management, or engineering. The workshop is also designed
to
   enable the formation and reinforcement of relationships that
further
   the commercial use of functional programming. Providing user
feedback
   to language designers and implementors is not a primary goal of the
   workshop, though it will be welcome if it occurs.

Speaking at CUFP

   If you use functional programming as a means, rather than as an
end,
   we invite you to offer to give a talk at the workshop.
Alternatively,
   if you know someone who would give a good talk, please nominate
them!

   Talks are typically 30-45 minutes long, but can be shorter. They
aim
   to inform participants about how functional programming played out
in
   real-world applications, focusing especially on the re-usable
lessons
   learned, or insights gained. Your talk does not need to be highly
   technical; for this audience, reflections on the commercial,
   management, or software engineering aspects are, if anything, more
   important. You do not need to submit a paper!

   If you are interested in offering a talk, or nominating someone to
do
   so, send an e-mail to jim (dot) d (dot) grundy (at) intel (dot) com
or
   simonpj (at) microsoft (dot) com by 2 June 2008 with a short
   description of what you'd like to talk about or what you think your
   nominee should give a talk about. Such descriptions should be about
   one page long.

Program Plans

   CUFP 2008 will last a full day and feature an invited presentation
   from Michael Hopcroft, the product unit manager for the forthcoming
   release of Microsoft Visual Studio F#. Additionally, the program
   will include a mix of presentations and discussion sessions. Topics
   will range over a wide area, including:
     * Case studies of successful and unsuccessful uses of functional
       programming;
     * Business opportunities and risks from using functional
languages;
     * Enablers for functional language use in a commercial setting;
     * Barriers to the adoption of functional languages, and
     * Mitigation strategies for overcoming limitations of functional
       programming.

   There will be no published proceedings, as the meeting is intended
to
   be more a discussion forum than a technical interchange.

Program Committee

     * Lennart Augustsson <lennart (dot) augustsson (at) gmail (dot)
com>
     * Matthias Blume <blume (at) tti-c (dot) org>
     * Adam Granicz <granicz (dot) adam (at) intellifactory (dot) com>
     * Jim Grundy (co-chair) <jim (dot) d (dot) grundy (at) intel
(dot) com>
     * John Lalonde <lalonde (at) abstrax (dot) com>
     * Andy Martin <akmartin (at) us (dot) ibm (dot) com>
     * Yaron Minsky <yminsky (at) janestcapital (dot) com>
     * Simon Peyton Jones (co-chair) <simonpj (at) microsoft (dot)
com>
     * Ulf Wiger <ulf (dot) wiger (at) ericsson (dot) com>

   This will be the fifth CUFP, for more information - including
reports
   from attendees of previous events - see the workshop web site:
   http://cufp.functionalprogramming.com