Taught by Steven Pemberton.

In the 50s, when the first programming languages were designed, computers cost
millions, and relatively, programmers were almost free. Those programming
languages therefore reflected that relationship: it didn’t matter if it took a
long time to program, as long as the resulting program ran as fast as possible.

Now, that relationship has been reversed: compared to the cost of programmers,
computers are almost free. And yet we are still programming them in direct
descendants of the programming languages from the 50’s: we are still telling the
computers step by step how to solve the problem.

Declarative programming is a new approach to applications. Rather than
describing exactly how to reach the solution, it describes what the solution
should look like, and leaves more of the administrative parts of the program to
the computer.

One of the few declarative languages available is XForms, an XML-based language
that despite its name is not only about forms. Large projects, at large
organisations such as the National Health Service, the BBC and Xerox, have shown
that by using XForms, programming time and cost of applications can be reduced
to a tenth!

This talk introduces XForms, and shows several amazing applications that can be
written in only a few dozen lines.

Taught by Jason Polis.

Financial Services are providing more JSON APIs, yet have integrated financial
systems using XML messages. You can instruct payment via a bank’s JSON web
service, whilst the bank settles payment using XML.

What does a simple payment look like in various XML standards and JSON
specifications? How can XML be converted to idiomatic JSON styles; and back
again ?

Together, let’s follow the journey of a simple payment, to learn how it is
transformed across a payment system. Along the way we’ll look at OpenBanking.UK
JSON, ISO 20022, and other useful standards.

Taught by John Snelson.

John will talk about using semantics in data integration with XML (and JSON). The
talk will cover why to use RDF (and XML), what to build, and how to build
it.

Taught by Adam Retter,
Debbie Lapeyre,
Gary Cornelius,
and Steven Pemberton.

Faculty members introduce us to some new and interesting technologies they’ve
noticed over the last couple of years.

Adam will talk about the explosion in databases and where that is headed.

Debbie will talk about the coalescence of schemas in some verticals of text
publishing.

Gary will talk about sensors to help people with brain injuries and dementia.

Steven will talk about invisible markup.