5 ms·

This is kinda off the point, but I'm surprised at the spelling and punctuation mistakes in that mail--generally high-profile hackers have excellent written Engl

by mjs 15y ago

This is kinda off the point, but I'm surprised at the spelling and punctuation mistakes in that mail--generally high-profile hackers have excellent written English. i.e. "but their isn't", "Do we need module's at all?", "do suggest alternative syntax's here."

deleted 15y ago
[deleted]
cbr 15y ago
I'm not sure his native language is english; he may be swedish.
- chops 15y ago
  I'm almost positive he's British, or at least he has a British accent of sorts: http://www.infoq.com/interviews/Erlang-Joe-Armstrong http://www.infoq.com/interviews/Erlang-Joe-Armstrong Also, regarding his writing, he did at least preface his post with This is a brain-dump-stream-of-consciousness-thing. Despite being a stickler for grammar rules myself, if I don't proofread my writing, there are bound to be plenty of grammar errors and typos that pop up, especially if my brain is really flying with ideas and my fingers are struggling to keep up. His post had that feel to it as well. A bunch of ideas, semi-related, bouncing ideas around haphazardly.
  - zwischenzug 15y ago
    I went to a talk he gave a year or so ago on a set of libraries he'd written. He was just like that in person. A complete mad professor. He showed us his early design documents of erlang, including original compile times and performance measurements. Awesome stuff. He does sound British, but there's a certain foreign-ness about the way he speaks (probably picked up from Ericsson).
- matthiasl 15y ago
  His native language is English. He's just sloppy. He's been in Sweden for decades and speaks Swedish with a typical English accent. Source 1: My opinion. I've met him many times. Source 2: His thesis states that he started at the Ericsson CSLab in 1985. CSLab was in Sweden. Source 3: This (http://www.cse.chalmers.se/~rjmh/Armstrong/bits.ps http://www.cse.chalmers.se/~rjmh/Armstrong/bits.ps) set of slides states that he has a B.Sc. from UCL (London) from 1972 and started at CSLAb in 1986 (not 1985, seems the dates are a bit fluid).
mishmash 15y ago
> spelling and punctuation mistakes > excellent written English Erlang's syntax, naming, and abbreviation conventions are straight schizophrenic. Keywords, directives, method/module names, variables, and arguments are randomly spelled out, others shortened, if you're lucky with underscores or CamelCase, there are some familiar C style conventions but not widespread, directory structure seems to be highly project dependent, etc. - the list goes on. It's a very "cluttered" language and the lack of a strong proficiency in written English as you mention clearly shows (to me) in the language/framework.
- sbalea 15y ago
  Keyword/directive spelling is British and any resemblance of C style conventions is a coincidence, because nobody cares about them in the Erlang world. Yes, Erlang has a weird syntax. Get over it. I do agree to the point that standard libraries could have a more unified style. But the language is simple and concise.
jsmcgd 15y ago
He may be dyslexic or he may just have rushed this to print and to hell with the typos.

by mjs 15y ago

deleted 15y ago

[deleted]

cbr 15y ago

I'm not sure his native language is english; he may be swedish.

chops 15y ago
I'm almost positive he's British, or at least he has a British accent of sorts: http://www.infoq.com/interviews/Erlang-Joe-Armstrong http://www.infoq.com/interviews/Erlang-Joe-Armstrong Also, regarding his writing, he did at least preface his post with This is a brain-dump-stream-of-consciousness-thing. Despite being a stickler for grammar rules myself, if I don't proofread my writing, there are bound to be plenty of grammar errors and typos that pop up, especially if my brain is really flying with ideas and my fingers are struggling to keep up. His post had that feel to it as well. A bunch of ideas, semi-related, bouncing ideas around haphazardly.
- zwischenzug 15y ago
  I went to a talk he gave a year or so ago on a set of libraries he'd written. He was just like that in person. A complete mad professor. He showed us his early design documents of erlang, including original compile times and performance measurements. Awesome stuff. He does sound British, but there's a certain foreign-ness about the way he speaks (probably picked up from Ericsson).
matthiasl 15y ago
His native language is English. He's just sloppy. He's been in Sweden for decades and speaks Swedish with a typical English accent. Source 1: My opinion. I've met him many times. Source 2: His thesis states that he started at the Ericsson CSLab in 1985. CSLab was in Sweden. Source 3: This (http://www.cse.chalmers.se/~rjmh/Armstrong/bits.ps http://www.cse.chalmers.se/~rjmh/Armstrong/bits.ps) set of slides states that he has a B.Sc. from UCL (London) from 1972 and started at CSLAb in 1986 (not 1985, seems the dates are a bit fluid).

mishmash 15y ago

> spelling and punctuation mistakes > excellent written English Erlang's syntax, naming, and abbreviation conventions are straight schizophrenic. Keywords, directives, method/module names, variables, and arguments are randomly spelled out, others shortened, if you're lucky with underscores or CamelCase, there are some familiar C style conventions but not widespread, directory structure seems to be highly project dependent, etc. - the list goes on. It's a very "cluttered" language and the lack of a strong proficiency in written English as you mention clearly shows (to me) in the language/framework.

sbalea 15y ago
Keyword/directive spelling is British and any resemblance of C style conventions is a coincidence, because nobody cares about them in the Erlang world. Yes, Erlang has a weird syntax. Get over it. I do agree to the point that standard libraries could have a more unified style. But the language is simple and concise.

jsmcgd 15y ago

He may be dyslexic or he may just have rushed this to print and to hell with the typos.