Exploring Verse, Haskell, Language Design and Teaching (with Simon Peyton Jones)

This week we talk to Simon Peyton Jones, a veteran language designer and researcher, and key figure in the development of Haskell. Haskell. Simon has made countless contributions to advancement of functional programming, and computer programming in general, and is currently working at Epic Games, working on the foundations of their new programming language, Verse. We discuss how programming languages are made, focussing on a big design idea from both the Haskell and Verse: building a large language from a small, tightly designed core. Then we move into Simon's current work exploring Functional Logic Programming, the big new idea that underpins Verse. It's an idea that blends the fundamentals FP with the core ideas of logic languages like Prolog in an entirely new way. Not even Simon knows exactly where the idea will lead, but it's a fascinating idea that could potentially bring constraint-solving and deduction right into the heart of modern software. Additionally, Simon discusses his involvement in reshaping the way we teach computing in England. He's been working hard to give computing education the same importance as the teaching of mathematics and sciences - something we should all have a fundamental understanding of. Simon's one of the smartest, nicest people in programming. Come as hear his brilliant brain at work. :-D -- Verse: https://github.com/UnrealVerseGuru/Ve... The Verse Language Reference: https://dev.epicgames.com/documentati... The Verse Calculus [pdf]: https://simon.peytonjones.org/assets/... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simon_P... The LogicT monad: https://hackage.haskell.org/package/l... Can programming be liberated from the von Neumann style?: https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/359576... CAS - Computing At School: https://www.computingatschool.org.uk/ Computer Science Teachers Association: https://csteachers.org/ Kris on Twitter:   / krisajenkins   Kris on LinkedIn:   / krisjenkins   -- 0:00 Intro 3:13 Haskell & Small Core Design 17:07 Verse & Functional Logic Programming 1:05:15 CAS & Teaching Future Programmers 1:21:50 Outro #programming #programminglanguages #softwaredevelopment #podcast #haskell #verse #verseprogramminglanguage