Future of Programming Languages--Safe and Secure?

Professor Robert Dewar
President and CEO of AdaCore, and
Professor of Computer Science, Courant Institute of New York University

Last summer at the Ada Europe conference, I tried using my crystal ball to look into the future of programming languages. My crystal ball seemed to be malfunctioning, and it kept looking into the past, no doubt reflecting the fact that there is not much new in programming language design that has not already been thought of already. In this talk, I will peer a little harder, and speculate about the future of programming languages with a particular emphasis on safety and security. What features of languages can help (if any?) and just how much help can we get at the language level in the difficult quest for total safety and total reliability?

Robert Dewar is an Emeritus Professor of Computer Science at the Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences at New York University. He is past chair of the department, and past associate director of the institute. His research fields include compilers and programming languages, operating systems, and microprocessor architectures. He is also the President and CEO of Ada Core Technogies, a company that specializes in providing large scale systems for development of critical systems using Ada technology. Ada Core Technologies provides all its software using Free Software/Open Source licenses. He is an expert in the technical aspects of patent and copyright law, having served as a an expert witness in several US Federal trials.