Tech Mesh London 2012

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Robert Virding, Co-inventor of Erlang

Robert Virding

Biography: Robert Virding

Robert Virding works for Erlang Solutions Ltd as a Principal Language Expert. While at Ericsson AB, Robert was one of the co-inventors of the Erlang programming language. As one of the original members of the Ericsson Computer Science Lab, he took part in the original system design and contributed much of the original libraries, as well as to the current compiler. While at the lab he also did a lot of work on the implementation of logic and functional languages and on garbage collection. He has also worked as an entrepreneur and was one of the co-founders of one of the first Erlang start-ups (Bluetail). Robert also worked a number of years at the Swedish Defence Materiel Administration (FMV) Modelling and Simulations Group. He co-authored the first book (Prentice-Hall) on Erlang, and is regularly invited to teach and present at conferences and universities worldwide.
 

Presentation: Keynote: 183 Years of Programming

Time: Wednesday 09:00 - 10:00 / Location: To be announced

The three of us (Joe, Robert and Mike) have more than years combined experience of programming. We have noticed the vast majority of software development projects use programming languages based on concepts which were developed close on a half a century ago. Tools and development environments have changed, but with few exceptions the basic paradigms remain the same.

We will reflect on our experience, what is good, what is bad and what is ugly. How did the past and our experience influence us when we developed Erlang. 

Presentation: Panel Debate: Runtime Evolution, the Future of VMs

Time: Wednesday 16:15 - 17:00 / Location: To be announced

This panel debate will discuss advantages and tradeoffs between languages and their underlying runtime systems. Are languages with their own VM better off? How do they compare with those running on multi-purpose ones? How do they tie into the existing ecosystem? How do they perform and scale on multi-core? Or should we just compile to native code? Join language inventors and VM experts and listen to the arguments for and against choosing the right tool for the job.  

Workshop: Erlang - A Language for programming Reliable Systems

Track: Language Track / Time: Thursday 09:00 - 12:00 / Location: Grafton

This hands on tutorial will give you an introduction to the Erlang programming language. You will learn the basics of how to read, write and structure Erlang programs. We start with an insight into the theory and concepts behind sequential and concurrent Erlang, allowing you to get acquainted with the Erlang syntax and semantics. We conclude with an overview of the error handling mechanisms used to build fault tolerant systems with five nines availability.
 
Keywords: Erlang, Fault Tolerant Systems, Concurrency, Emerging Languages, Functional Programming
 
Target Audience: Delegates who will benefit from this tutorial includes those want to learn more about Erlang and its concurrency model. Attending will put you on the right track in building distributed, fault tolerant massively concurrent soft real-time systems.
 
In order to get the most out of this tutorial, you must have a good grasp of other programming languages. This will be a hands-on tutorial. Make sure you come with your laptop having installed Erlang and your favourite editor.

Workshop: OTP System Principles

Track: Language Track / Time: Thursday 13:00 - 16:00 / Location: Grafton

Erlang is just a programming language. To build highly scalable, fault tolerant systems with requirements on high availability, you need the OTP middleware. OTP consists of tools, reusable components and libraries, and design principles. In this tutorial, you will get an insight in the theory and concepts behind Erlang design principles, learning how concurrency design patterns they are used to build industrial grade systems. These design patterns, also known as OTP behaviours, include client servers, event handlers, finite state machines, supervisors and applications. We will explain the client server behaviour in detail, and provide an overview of finite state machines, event handlers and supervisors.
 
Keywords: Erlang, OTP, Fault Tolerant systems, Design Patterns, Concurrency
 
Target Audience: Delegates who will benefit from this tutorial are software developers and architects. You must have either attended the Practical Erlang Tutorial or have a good understanding of Erlang’s syntax, semantics and concurrency model (Either through the Erlang books or online tutorials).
 
This will be a hands-on tutorial. Make sure you come with your laptop having installed Erlang and your favourite editor.