Random Hacks: Lightweight Languages 2 Conference

"Lightweight Languages 2 Conference" by Doug Auclair

Thu, 15 Nov 2007 10:32:11 +0000

I had the pleasure of attending that conference … sat next to Paul Graham, talked with Neel and Joe Armstrong … and have been looking for that ever since. Did attend the PADL2006, which was very good, and the FLoC2007, which, in my opinion was too focused on esotera.

What did come out of the FLoC for me was the importance of dependent types and the application of coinduction to logic programming (particularly Prolog). Unfortunately, the coinduction guys were slammed in the conference (With “look how smart I am and you are not” comments such as “That number is not omega, it’s alpha”) and weren’t ready to move coinduction beyond the research phase. From the dependent types people, including the very friendly and helpful Dr. Andrew Appel, I continually got the comment “why would you ever use dependent types in industry?” This comment stunned me because each synopsis in the dependent type papers I’ve read start out: “dependent types help you program more safely and better”. My counter question is “why WOULDN’T one use dependent types in industry?”

So if there was a dream-come-true conference like LL2 was, it would include concise logical/declarative programming with coinduction and dependent types. Oh, STM for composable concurrency for a bit of variety.

Anyone wish to host this? I’ll register early.

"Lightweight Languages 2 Conference" by Atropisol

Wed, 17 Oct 2007 07:03:47 +0000

If I recall correctly, the Rotor developers were pretty focused on FreeBSD at the time, and I’m not sure that Rotor had actually been ported to Linux.

You’re right about the licensing terms: Everyone was a bit paranoid about looking at Rotor, for fear of getting “contaminated.”

"Lightweight Languages 2 Conference" by Matthew

Wed, 12 Sep 2007 18:04:08 +0000

I am surprised not to see Lua mentioned here. Maybe because that was in 2002.

"Lightweight Languages 2 Conference" by Reg Braithwaite

Wed, 17 Jan 2007 20:12:54 +0000

Four years later, isn’t it amazing how much of this conference would turn out to be popular?

http://weblog.raganwald.com/2007/01/where-were-you-on-saturday-november-9.html

"Lightweight Languages 2 Conference" by Eric

Sun, 04 Dec 2005 10:16:08 +0000

If I recall correctly, the Rotor developers were pretty focused on FreeBSD at the time, and I’m not sure that Rotor had actually been ported to Linux.

You’re right about the licensing terms: Everyone was a bit paranoid about looking at Rotor, for fear of getting “contaminated.”

"Lightweight Languages 2 Conference" by Kartik Vaddadi

Sun, 04 Dec 2005 08:46:57 +0000

Rotor (Microsoft’s FreeBSD implementation of the CLR)

Don’t you mean “free implementation”? (Perhaps pseudo-free would be a better description.)

Lightweight Languages 2 Conference

Eric — Sun, 10 Nov 2002 00:00:00 +0000

This Saturday, I attended the LL2 conference at MIT. LL2 is dedicated to "lightweight" programming languages, a delibrately loose category including (1) any pleasant, easy-to-use scripting language and (2) any academic language which makes it easier to prototype and write software quickly. LL2 is a small, informal workshop with audience participation. The attendees are a diverse bunch, and enjoy goring each other's sacred cows. You have been warned.