Video and slides synchronized, mp3 and slide download available at URL http://bit.ly/2X0EoVK. Noel Welsh talks about adopting new programming languages, and looks at the conditions when a language could and should be adopted in a commercial setting. Filmed at qconlondon.com. Noel Welsh is a founding partner at Underscore, where he helps teams become more productive with Scala and functional programming. He has 20 years experience working on systems ranging from recommender systems to web services, to embedded software. His main technical interests are functional programming, machine learning, digital art, and distributed systems.

1. When & How to Win
with Programming
Languages

2. InfoQ.com: News & Community Site
Watch the video with slide
synchronization on InfoQ.com!
https://www.infoq.com/presentations/
adopt-new-programming-language/
• Over 1,000,000 software developers, architects and CTOs read the site world-
wide every month
• 250,000 senior developers subscribe to our weekly newsletter
• Published in 4 languages (English, Chinese, Japanese and Brazilian
Portuguese)
• Post content from our QCon conferences
• 2 dedicated podcast channels: The InfoQ Podcast, with a focus on
Architecture and The Engineering Culture Podcast, with a focus on building
• 96 deep dives on innovative topics packed as downloadable emags and
minibooks
• Over 40 new content items per week

3. Purpose of QCon
- to empower software development by facilitating the spread of
knowledge and innovation
Strategy
- practitioner-driven conference designed for YOU: influencers of
change and innovation in your teams
- speakers and topics driving the evolution and innovation
- connecting and catalyzing the influencers and innovators
Highlights
- attended by more than 12,000 delegates since 2007
- held in 9 cities worldwide
Presented at QCon London
www.qconlondon.com

4. @noelwelsh
noelwelsh.com
Inner Producti×

5. Outline

6. You should
open your ❤ to
more PLs

7. PLs are the
biggest driver
of productivity

8. Understand the
forces against
adoption

9. Understand
how and when
to adopt

10. The Lawyer
Hypothesis

12. “The first thing we do,
let's kill all the
lawyers”
William Shakespeare

13. Lawyers are not
lizards wearing
human skin

14. Lawyers are
mostly not
lizards wearing
human skin

15. But they do get
paid a lot

16. David Higgins started his
new role in the City office
of US law firm Kirkland &
Ellis … with … a reported
$10m (£7m) salary.
http://www.cityam.com/265864/citys-best-paid-lawyers-and-they-taking-home

17. Top lawyers are
actually
lawyers

18. Software >> Law

19. Lawyer >> Dev

20. The Quest for
Productivity

21. Humans don’t
scale

22. Automation
does scale

23. Productivity ≠
Writing code

24. Not writing code is the
only way to be
productive at scale

25. Libraries

26. Languages

27. Abstraction

28. Languages >>
Libraries

29. What is a
Language For?

30. Control the
machine

31. Primitive types

32. SIMD

33. Access the OS

34. Access the
browser

35. Access a
framework

36. Notation for
expressing
solutions

37. First-class
values

38. Generic types

39. Automatic
resource
management

40. “The machine”
can be narrow

41. DSL

42. “Little
Language”

43. Machine
determines if
language is
used

44. Javascript

45. Notation upper-
bounds
productivity

46. Where are
Languages?

47. Big languages

48. Java, Python,
Scala, Go,
Haskell, Ruby,
etc.

49. Little languages

50. CSS, CUDA,
configuration,
Excel, marketing
automation, etc.

51. Little >> Big

52. Frameworks are
libraries

53. Programmed in
configuration

54. Most DSLs don’t
realise they are
DSL

55. CSS Variables
~10 years too
late

56. When are
Languages
Adopted?

57. Big languages

58. Access
compelling, new
“machine”

59. Javascript:
access browser

60. Objective-C:
access iOS

61. Ruby: access
Rails

62. Respect legacy
with better
notation

63. Scala vs Java

64. Kotlin vs Java
(Android)

65. Swift vs
Objective-C

66. Rust vs C

67. Typescript vs
Javascript

68. Cultural fit

69. Elixir vs Erlang

70. Go vs every
other compiled
language

71. Story time:
Racket

72. No compelling
new machine

73. No respect for
legacy

74. Story time:
Scala

75. Compelling
new machine:
Spark

76. Respect for
legacy

77. Culturally
acceptable for
me

78. Little languages

79. Same forces

80. but barrier
much lower

81. CSS, CUDA,
configuration,
Excel, marketing
automation, etc.

82. Language can
be competitive
advantage

83. Marketing
automation

84. Airtable

85. Cloudflare

86. Little >> Big

87. Frameworks are
libraries …

88. programmed in
configuration

89. Most DSLs don’t
realise they are
DSL

90. CSS Variables
~10 years too
late

91. How are
Languages
Adopted?

92. Big languages

93. Consultancy?
Forget it.

94. Product? Go all
in.

95. High cost of
failure

96. Hire enthusiast
early adopters

97. Create a remote
first culture

98. Prepare to carry
the burden …

99. of maintaining
libraries

100. of maintaining
community
presence

101. of creating
legacy

102. Start small

103. Demonstrate
success

104. Slowly spread

105. Consider
external
mentors

106. Little languages

107. Go for it!

108. Low cost of
failure

109. But consider …

110. Simple (but
maybe not
easy)

111. Used enough

112. Reasoning
across
boundaries

113. Conclusions

114. Languages are
a powerful tool

115. Conditions
must be right

116. Add this to your
toolbox

117. @noelwelsh
noelwelsh.com
Inner Producti×

118. Watch the video with slide
synchronization on InfoQ.com!
https://www.infoq.com/presentations/
adopt-new-programming-language/