Tuesday, March 15, 2016 4:30 King 239
Join us for a talk with Richard Townsend; Columbia University:
Pure Laziness: An intro to the Haskell Programming Language
High-level programming languages such as Python and Java increase programmer productivity by abstracting away low-level details like memory management and computer architecture. However, most of these languages still force the programmer to think like a computer; we must tell the computer exactly how to solve a problem via ordered sequences of statements and explicit looping constructs. Functional languages like Haskell provide an alternative approach: instead of telling the computer how to perform a computation, you simply describe the computation itself and let the language do the work. This approach leads to more intuitive programs and higher programmer productivity in the long run. My talk will serve as an accessible introduction to the Haskell language, covering its clean syntax, lazy semantics, and pure functional model. My hope is to engender interest in other programming styles, and show that learning a vastly different programming language can lead to new problem solving techniques applicable throughout a computer scientist’s career.
Refreshments at 4:00 in King 225