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How Heraclitus would Design a Programming Language

Posted by timothy on from the aitch-plus-plus dept.

CowboyRobot writes "Developer of Smalltalk Alan Kay has an interview on ACM Queue where he describes the history of computing and his approach to designing languages. Kay has an impressive resume (PARC, ARPAnet, Atari, Apple, Alan Turing Award winner) and has an endless supply of memorable quotes: 'Perl is another example of filling a tiny, short-term need, and then being a real problem in the longer term,' 'Once you have something that grows faster than education grows, you're always going to get a pop culture,' 'most undergraduate degrees in computer science these days are basically Java vocational training,' 'All creativity is an extended form of a joke,' and 'nobody really knows how to design a good language.'"

2 of 577 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Which fanboy are you? by karniv0re · · Score: 0, Troll

    7. OpenBSD

    You walk around feeling incredibly secure, since you're supposed to be secure by default. Then, because you didn't take the time to understand the OS and did something stupid, you realize that you've been walking with your fly down the whole time. Of course the girls you tried to pick up at the bar called you out right away with your smug attitude, lack of "features", and that "Puff" t-shirt you thought was cool. Once you realize your mistakes, you desperately post to misc@openbsd.org begging for help. You get laughed at by other people just like you, only of a higher caliber. But hey, you don't care, you're secure... right?

  2. Re:astounding hubris by jeif1k · · Score: 1, Troll

    Then go re-read his post and realize that it talked about how it made implementing compilers easier,

    So was I. Go read up a little on Lisp and trying using it, then you'll see why.

    Lisps awkward syntax (yes, yes, I know "it's not awkward, it's minmal!") will probably prevent it

    Coming from someone who advocates Perl-related technologies, that is a ridiculous statement. Perl is a stellar example of how even the worst syntax can't keep a language from being used.

    Then put down the Bill Joy doll.

    The only thing I would be doing with a Bill Joy doll is put needles in it; Java sucks about as badly as Perl, although in completely different ways.