So a quick recap of the good and bad during the first day of the 2011 Clojure Conj.
Lets start with the good:
- A fantastic talk by Arnoldo Muller-Molina on using Clojure in some very interesting bioinformatics problems.
- Two very interesting talks on logic programming, one by Ambrose on Clojure’s core.logic, another less formal talk by William Byrd and Dan Friedman (two of the authors of the Reasoned Schemer, which I really need to read) on minikanren, which included writing a program to write 50 functions that return 6 (though I think it would have been more useful had it found functions that returned 42…).
- I finally got my print copy of Clojure In Action (which I ordered as part of Manning’s early access program when the book was still in Beta… just over 18 months ago).
- A great talk by the precocious Anthony Grimes on Clojail.
- A lot of people I talked to are using Clojure not just for hobby development, but in their day jobs as well.
- The Sheraton seems very capable of handling the size of the crowd.
But of course there were a few negatives as well.
- Ragweed is in season and I really should have started taking allergy pills a few days ago. And by the sneezes I heard behind me, I wasn’t the only one.
- Parking in the lot is a tad bit expensive for those of us not staying at the hotel (though of course I didn’t have to travel, so I can’t complain about cost too much).
- Lunch was, well, less than inspired. I mean come on, make your own sandwiches? I can make those at home and bring it with me…
- No bagpipes (yet…).
All in all, a very good first day.
bagpipes are great… outdoors. last year the bagpipes were overwhelming.