Notes for February 13, 2012 meeting Notes for February 13, 2012 meeting Notes for February 13, 2012 meeting Notes for February 13, 2012 meeting

[Igal Koshevoy]

We had a great meeting with about 18 attendees. Our friends at Janrain also surprised us by not just offering us a venue, pizza, beer and soda, but also brought a tasty cake that even had an edible gazebo on it. Thanks!

* Oz: Lyle Kopnicky gave us a great introduction to Oz, a multi-paradigm programming language that incorporates many functional features. Lyle made it easy to understand the language by walking us through bite-sized executable code examples showing off the various features of the language, eventually showing off how elegantly Oz implemented concurrency. You can see Lyle's presentation, code and follow up comments at <http://goo.gl/59k4u> or learn more about Oz at <http://www.mozart-oz.org/>.

* "Concepts, Techniques, and Models of Computer Programming": Lyle Kopnicky spoke very highly of this book, which uses Oz to demonstrate concepts. The Amazon description: "This innovative text presents computer programming as a unified discipline in a way that is both practical and scientifically sound. The book focuses on techniques of lasting value and explains them precisely in terms of a simple abstract machine. The book presents all major programming paradigms in a uniform framework that shows their deep relationships and how and where to use them together." Details about the book: <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Concepts,_Techniques,_and_Models_of_Computer_Programming>

* pdxlang user group: Matt Youell started a new group called the Zissou Society for Programming Language Exploration or "pdxlang" for short. He's seeking presenters and participants for the group's first meeting. Learn about more about it at <http://groups.google.com/group/pdxlang>

* APL user group: All present somehow missed the first APL user group meeting, which sprung up quietly a few days ago. If you learn anything about this new group, please post details. "APL (named after the book A Programming Language) is an interactive array-oriented language and integrated development environment [that] has a combination of unique and relatively uncommon features [and] was an important influence on the development of spreadsheets, functional programming, and computer math packages." More about APL: <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/APL_(programming_language)>

* MUMPS: We briefly discussed this language designed for building multi-user database-driven applications. Introduced in 1966, it predates UNIX, C and SQL, yet provides many similar features, although in very different ways. It's still being used on new projects, ranging from healthcare to finance to space exploration. Learn more about MUMPS at <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MUMPS>

* Inform 7: We briefly discussed this specialized declarative language used for writing interactive fiction. Learn more at <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inform7>

* How to Open a Beer with Paper: Because sometimes you need to learn a new programming language in the evening and can't find a bottle opener: <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=00DWLkVLbd4>

-igal

[Igal Koshevoy]

PS: The amusingly redundant subject line of my original post was
brought to you thanks to Gmail's charming willingness to let me to
paste a line of text that ended with a newline into the subject field,
which it then displayed as a blank line to make me think that the
paste failed and that the subject was blank when it wasn't. Yay,
technology!