In our latest gathering at the Penn State Open Source Program Office, we delved into exciting topics within the realm of programming and web development. This post recaps the key points and discussions from our enriching meeting.
Local Language Models: Securing Private Data: Our discussion kicked off with exploring how to run local language models securely. This involved understanding the resources needed to ensure data privacy and security.
Haskell: The Academic Challenger: We navigated the intricacies of Haskell, a powerful functional programming language known for its high entry barriers. Haskell’s academic prestige and its unique tooling ecosystem were key discussion points.
Python Meets Haskell: Coconut: An interesting turn in our conversation was the introduction of Coconut, a language that brings Haskell-like features into Python. Coconut represents an accessible pathway to functional programming concepts within a familiar Python environment. Learn more about Coconut here.
Elixir & Phoenix: Concurrency in Web Development: The spotlight then shifted to Elixir, a language that excels in managing concurrency, running on the BEAM virtual machine. We dove into the Phoenix framework, which is aligned with Elixir, and its ability to handle highly concurrent applications efficiently. More about Elixir can be found here, and details on the Phoenix framework are available here.
Conclusion: Our meeting was a journey through various programming languages and frameworks, highlighting the diverse interests and expertise within our group. We’re excited to continue exploring these technologies and their applications in open source projects.