A Programming Language for the New Web
Shriram Krishnamurthi, Brown University
Explicitly or implicitly, programming languages mirror domains. The best languages weave the concerns of a domain through a compatible computational model to offer programmers the best of both worlds. This statement naturally raises the question: What is the appropriate programming language for Web applications in the Ajax style?
Our answer, Flapjax, is layered atop JavaScript. Flapjax demonstrates that the Web has a natural abstraction: event-driven reactivity. After explaining this we will build on it to examine connections to Web services, data binding, and access-control security. I will also cover some highlights of our work in this area on implementation techniques, principles for interfacing to legacy components, program transformations to improve performance, applications, and more. http://www.flapjax-lang.org
Shriram Krishnamurthi is an Associate Professor of Computer Science at Brown University. His recent work focuses on language support for interactive software, and on analyses for security policies. He is a co-author of the DrScheme programming environment, the FASTLINK genetic linkage analysis package, the Continue conference paper server, the Margrave access control policy analysis package, the Flapjax programming language, and the book How to Design Programs. He has also written Programming Languages: Application and Interpretation and coordinates the decade-old TeachScheme/ReachJava high-school computer science outreach program.
