Abstract:

There's chaos at the north pole!
The only elf alive who knew Fortran has retired, and the elves are struggling to meet Santa's deadlines without code they can understand.

In this talk, we will help the elves with their problems using Julia, a young programming language that is geared towards scientific computing (which is what elves do most of the time).
The aim is to show language features that can make scientific computing easier and more intuitive, without compromising on performance.

Even if you have no interest in changing your day-to-day programming language, the talk will highlight features and ideas relevant to generic scientific programming, and how language design can affect how you solve problems.
It might also make you aware of features or patterns that might exist in your language of choice, either built-in or as a package, that are useful for your everyday tasks.

And, of course, the elves will end up with code that is easier for them to understand and use.