Lars Bak

Design, implementation, and evaluation of the Resilient Smalltalk embedded platform

Most microprocessors today are used in embedded systems and the percentage of microprocessors used for embedded systems is increasing. At the same time development of embedded systems is very resource-consuming among others due to the lack of support for incremental development and for support for dynamic servicing and upgrading of deployed systems. This paper introduces the design and implementation of the Resilient System for embedded systems development which has as a design goal to support exactly this. Programs are written in a dialect of Smalltalk and executed on a compact, efficient virtual machine running on embedded systems. Programmers may connect to running virtual machines and service, monitor, or change the running systems. Furthermore, we present an evaluation of the Resilient platform in relation to the design goals through a case study of two development projects which successfully used the platform.

How Dart learned from past object-oriented systems (keynote)

The design of the Dart programming language is heavily based on syntax, features, and performance characteristics from past object-oriented systems. This intentional choice has resulted in a productive and yet simple to learn programming language with clear semantics. It can even be implemented efficiently on a wide variety of platforms. We will in this talk discuss several important design decisions, including: constructor semantics, the optional type system, and support for incremental execution and fast application startup. Finally, we will evaluate where the language should be improved.

The Future of Programming Languages and Programmers

In the beginning “programs” were patterns of bits that commanded the execution of individual machines. As machines evolved in complexity – languages evolved, starting with a variety of assembly languages and growing to encompass higher levels of abstraction. Over the years – somewhat surprisingly – programmers evolved from engineers at the pinnacle of their profession with many years of experience to individuals not yet 10 years old giving evidence that programming does not necessarily require a formal education. This panel will bring together a diverse set of industry and academic professionals to discuss the future of programming languages and programmers.