Re: [Haskell-cafe] why are trading/banking industries seriously adopting FPLs???

2011-03-25 Thread Tom Murphy
>
> Why can they assess the risk and the probable benefits of trying out
> another innovation and can contain the risk? Because they can do that of
> almost anything. They are surviving investors. Trying out another innovation
> is just another investment, not unlike trying out another stock, another
> bond, another estate.
>
> Why can the computer security people not do the same? Because they are
> debuggers, not investors.
>
>
I agree with this point, but I think it could be said to have as much or
more to do with the qualities of the field, as the qualities of people in
the field.

 Finance and trading are extremely quantifiable fields. An increase in
speed of execution can fairly accurately be assigned a dollar value in ways
that a field like compute security can't.

 Reasoning about the payoff of switching to another technology becomes
harder. Even after a technology has been successfully adopted, it's hard to
say what the payoffs were! A political climate, where ideas are more
assailable, arises, and people huddle under the shelter of what's commonly
accepted. "Quant" people might do the same, if they were in that type of
climate.

 In finance, you hear a lot more of "Don't believe me? Fine. The results
will speak for themselves."
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Re: [Haskell-cafe] why are trading/banking industries seriously adopting FPLs???

2011-03-25 Thread Albert Y. C. Lai

On 11-03-25 03:08 AM, Vasili I. Galchin wrote:

  I am very curious about the readiness of trading and banking
industries to adopt FPLs like Haskell:


Not only FPL and not only Haskell, but also descendents of APL such as 
J. Generally also any innovation.


Why are they willing to try out innovations? Because they can assess the 
risk and the probable benefits of trying out another innovation, and 
they can contain that risk. They know how to be prudent without being 
overly conservative.


Why can they assess the risk and the probable benefits of trying out 
another innovation and can contain the risk? Because they can do that of 
almost anything. They are surviving investors. Trying out another 
innovation is just another investment, not unlike trying out another 
stock, another bond, another estate.


Why can the computer security people not do the same? Because they are 
debuggers, not investors.


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Re: [Haskell-cafe] why are trading/banking industries seriously adopting FPLs???

2011-03-25 Thread Vasili I. Galchin
Hi Neil,

Can you go into more detail about the intrusion detection software you
wrote, e..g how it used iteratees and DSLs(even not directly impl. in
Haskell)??

Thanks,

Vasili

On Fri, Mar 25, 2011 at 3:09 AM, Neil Davies
wrote:

> Trustworthiness
>
> It provides the means of constructing systems that can be reasoned about,
> in which the risks of mistakes can be assessed, in which concurrency can be
> exploited without compromising those properties.
>
> I once sat on a plane with a guy who ran a company that made software to
> move money around markets, he was really pleased that they could handle up
> to 60 transactions a second. They would take a money moment (say $5B) split
> it into 'maximum risk units' and engage in the conversion between the two
> currencies. Given the nature of the distributed transaction, the way in
> which the commitment process operated what was *really* important was
> managing the overall risk of currency fluctuation in the partially completed
> distributed transactions. His typical employee at the time (this was about
> 8-10 years ago) was a good PhD in quantum chromodynamics - they had the
> ability to think about the 'all possible futures' that the code had to
> handle. (yes I did my FP evangelisation bit)
>
> That company, with today's Haskell, could start from a simple, obviously
> correct, description of the issues and evolve a solution - knowing that,
> with equational reasoning, referential transparency and other properties,
> the transformations were 'safe'. Doesn't mean you don't test - does mean you
> can do more with your good staff.
>
> I've used some of the techniques that are in the haskell libraries (esp.
> iteratee's and dsl's) in developing s/w for intrustion detection companies
> in the past - granted they were not actually running GHC code - but
> specialised C coming out of a DSL
>
> Neil
>
>
> On 25 Mar 2011, at 07:08, Vasili I. Galchin wrote:
>
> Hello,
>
>  I am very curious about the readiness of trading and banking
> industries to adopt FPLs like Haskell:
> http://talenteze.catsone.com/careers/index.php?m=portal&a=details&jobOrderID=466095
>  I currently work in the computer security(intrusion detection). My
> colleagues are totally ignorant concerning the foundations/motivations of
> FPLs. (Ironically http://www.galois.com participates in the computer
> security arena!). Why are are trading/banking diving into FPLs?
>
> Regards,
>
> Vasili
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>
>
>
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Re: [Haskell-cafe] why are trading/banking industries seriously adopting FPLs???

2011-03-25 Thread Ketil Malde
"Vasili I. Galchin"  writes:

>  I am very curious about the readiness of trading and banking industries
> to adopt FPLs like Haskell:

Yes, I've noticed that, too.  And it goes both ways - it's an industry
of which the computer science crowd tends to be unaware as well.

Some hypotheses, off the top of my head, and with no particular
knowledge about the industry as such:

* The financial business is very competitive, and a small advantage
  (like making a transaction a minute before your competitors) makes a
  big difference.   In a more conservative industry, nobody got fired for
  buying IBM.

* The financial business are developing mathematical models which map
  more easily to functional languages.  (And have math-savvy people
  who are able to understand them).  OTOH, engineers ought to understand
  math, too.

* Culturally, engineers tend to hire people like themselves, which
  imposes a lot of inertia.  Perhaps the financials have a more
  enlightened world view?

* Mistakes are very expensive, and financials thus value correctness
  more than other industries, since actual money is at stake, not just
  less tangible values like customer relations (which can be remedied by
  other means).

* Trends - perhaps an institution is doing particularly well, and
  it incidentally is using an FPL.  The financial sector being no 
  smarter than other sectors, other businesses might pick up FPLs for
  what is basically cargo-cult reasons.

* Financials have the financial elbowroom to pay high salaries.  Thus
  they get smarter people, who as we all know are more likely to choose
  functional languages.

-k
-- 
If I haven't seen further, it is by standing in the footprints of giants

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Re: [Haskell-cafe] why are trading/banking industries seriously adopting FPLs???

2011-03-25 Thread Neil Davies

Trustworthiness

It provides the means of constructing systems that can be reasoned  
about, in which the risks of mistakes can be assessed, in which  
concurrency can be exploited without compromising those properties.


I once sat on a plane with a guy who ran a company that made software  
to move money around markets, he was really pleased that they could  
handle up to 60 transactions a second. They would take a money moment  
(say $5B) split it into 'maximum risk units' and engage in the  
conversion between the two currencies. Given the nature of the  
distributed transaction, the way in which the commitment process  
operated what was *really* important was managing the overall risk of  
currency fluctuation in the partially completed distributed  
transactions. His typical employee at the time (this was about 8-10  
years ago) was a good PhD in quantum chromodynamics - they had the  
ability to think about the 'all possible futures' that the code had to  
handle. (yes I did my FP evangelisation bit)


That company, with today's Haskell, could start from a simple,  
obviously correct, description of the issues and evolve a solution -  
knowing that, with equational reasoning, referential transparency and  
other properties, the transformations were 'safe'. Doesn't mean you  
don't test - does mean you can do more with your good staff.


I've used some of the techniques that are in the haskell libraries  
(esp. iteratee's and dsl's) in developing s/w for intrustion detection  
companies in the past - granted they were not actually running GHC  
code - but specialised C coming out of a DSL


Neil


On 25 Mar 2011, at 07:08, Vasili I. Galchin wrote:


Hello,

 I am very curious about the readiness of trading and banking  
industries to adopt FPLs like Haskell: http://talenteze.catsone.com/careers/index.php?m=portal&a=details&jobOrderID=466095 
  I currently work in the computer security(intrusion  
detection). My colleagues are totally ignorant concerning the  
foundations/motivations of FPLs. (Ironically http://www.galois.com  
participates in the computer security arena!). Why are are trading/ 
banking diving into FPLs?


Regards,

Vasili
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Re: [Haskell-cafe] why are trading/banking industries seriously adopting FPLs???

2011-03-25 Thread Erik de Castro Lopo
Vasili I. Galchin wrote:

>  I am very curious about the readiness of trading and banking industries
> to adopt FPLs like Haskell:
> http://talenteze.catsone.com/careers/index.php?m=portal&a=details&jobOrderID=466095
> I currently work in the computer security(intrusion detection).

I worked in that area myself at one time. I found the security field
full of snake oil merchants, poor engineering practices, poor
methodlogy and shoddy products.

> My
> colleagues are totally ignorant concerning the foundations/motivations of
> FPLs. (Ironically http://www.galois.com participates in the computer
> security arena!).

Galois is likely a notable exception to my earlier statement.

> Why are are trading/banking diving into FPLs?

The best explanation I know of is by Yaron Minsky of Jane Street
Capital. Find it in the The Monad Reader issue 7:

http://www.haskell.org/wikiupload/0/03/TMR-Issue7.pdf

Erik
-- 
--
Erik de Castro Lopo
http://www.mega-nerd.com/


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[Haskell-cafe] why are trading/banking industries seriously adopting FPLs???

2011-03-25 Thread Vasili I. Galchin
Hello,

 I am very curious about the readiness of trading and banking industries
to adopt FPLs like Haskell:
http://talenteze.catsone.com/careers/index.php?m=portal&a=details&jobOrderID=466095
I currently work in the computer security(intrusion detection). My
colleagues are totally ignorant concerning the foundations/motivations of
FPLs. (Ironically http://www.galois.com participates in the computer
security arena!). Why are are trading/banking diving into FPLs?

Regards,

Vasili
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