5 ms·

Stiff asks, great programmers answer (2006)

71 points by phil294 5y ago

kleiba 5y ago
Interesting to learn how often Emacs gets mentioned.
- lmilcin 5y ago
  It is simple. Emacs is an editor made by programmers for programmers. If you are the type that likes to tinker with things, Emacs is going to be the editor for you to tinker with and automate whatever you want.
  - agumonkey 5y ago
    the adaptability freedom emacs yields is really addictive, and i'm a super crappy elisp programmer
xojoc 5y ago
Previous discussion on Reddit https://www.reddit.com/r/programming/comments/99etq/ten_questions_for_nine_famous_programmers_ill/ https://www.reddit.com/r/programming/comments/99etq/ten_ques... (215 comments) PS: found with https://discussions.xojoc.pw/?q=https%3A%2F%2Fweb.archive.org%2Fweb%2F20061124122032%2Fhttp%3A%2F%2Fwww.stifflog.com%2F2006%2F10%2F16%2Fstiff-asks-great-programmers-answer%2F https://discussions.xojoc.pw/?q=https%3A%2F%2Fweb.archive.or...
- deleted 5y ago
  [deleted]
sail0rm00n 5y ago
Steve Yegge called out the browser-side programming dominating the app space back in 2006. Amazing foresight!
- kleiba 5y ago
  When it's right, it's amazing foresight; when it's wrong, no-one remembers.
- hnfong 5y ago
  I wouldn't say it's foresight, more like recognizing a trend. By 2006 I worked as an intern in a company that made rich web based apps, basically a competitor to Google Spreadsheets if you will. There were numerous startups doing similar stuff. It was basically a mainstream thing. At the time I remember a bunch of people mocking up desktop environments inside a browser -- not necessarily useful but it was one of the fun things to do with the capabilities of the browser. AJAX was the cool tech that everybody wanted to use. I don't think anyone at the time could have foreseen that Javascript would become the sophisticated mess with new frameworks displacing the existing ones every other year, but browser-side programming displacing traditional UI toolkits was well on the way by then.
- 8note 5y ago
  2006 was the hey day of flash games, so the moving to browser part was already pretty clear, but that it would be web based APIs less so. canvas was still new/didn't work very well back then iirc.
- Jensson 5y ago
  It was half a year after the launch of Google docs, pretty sure many had similar views at the time. Feels like the browser side peaked at the time and we are still about there, at least among the stuff I use there isn't anything more complicated than google docs still today 15 years later.
- valbaca 5y ago
  This insight came even before the V8 JS engine was out. Dude was spot-on
angeland89 5y ago
I find it interesting that to the question of 10x or 100x programmer they never ponder if it exist. They just answers what those people do or are. At least in my book that seals the debate, some of the best says they exist and can describe them. Then they probably exist in larger numbers than outliers in a dataset.
natch 5y ago
So, what is Peter Norvig’s favorite book, I wonder.
- agumonkey 5y ago
  sometimes he lurks by, maybe you (and we)'ll have an answer
  - natch 5y ago
    Yes I was hoping. Perhaps more interesting (or maybe not interesting at all, depending on the reason) is why there was no answer in the original thread.
twic 5y ago
Just sitting here imagining Bjarne rocking out to the Dixie Chicks.
dang 5y ago
One small past thread: Stifflog - Stiff asks, great programmers answer - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=574301 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=574301 - April 2009 (3 comments)
DangitBobby 5y ago
If Guido was aiming for "I don't care for this interview", he nailed it.
- alisonkisk 5y ago
  He was succinct, not dismissive.

71 points by phil294 5y ago

kleiba 5y ago

Interesting to learn how often Emacs gets mentioned.

lmilcin 5y ago
It is simple. Emacs is an editor made by programmers for programmers. If you are the type that likes to tinker with things, Emacs is going to be the editor for you to tinker with and automate whatever you want.
- agumonkey 5y ago
  the adaptability freedom emacs yields is really addictive, and i'm a super crappy elisp programmer

xojoc 5y ago

Previous discussion on Reddit https://www.reddit.com/r/programming/comments/99etq/ten_questions_for_nine_famous_programmers_ill/ https://www.reddit.com/r/programming/comments/99etq/ten_ques... (215 comments) PS: found with https://discussions.xojoc.pw/?q=https%3A%2F%2Fweb.archive.org%2Fweb%2F20061124122032%2Fhttp%3A%2F%2Fwww.stifflog.com%2F2006%2F10%2F16%2Fstiff-asks-great-programmers-answer%2F https://discussions.xojoc.pw/?q=https%3A%2F%2Fweb.archive.or...

deleted 5y ago
[deleted]

sail0rm00n 5y ago

Steve Yegge called out the browser-side programming dominating the app space back in 2006. Amazing foresight!

kleiba 5y ago
When it's right, it's amazing foresight; when it's wrong, no-one remembers.
hnfong 5y ago
I wouldn't say it's foresight, more like recognizing a trend. By 2006 I worked as an intern in a company that made rich web based apps, basically a competitor to Google Spreadsheets if you will. There were numerous startups doing similar stuff. It was basically a mainstream thing. At the time I remember a bunch of people mocking up desktop environments inside a browser -- not necessarily useful but it was one of the fun things to do with the capabilities of the browser. AJAX was the cool tech that everybody wanted to use. I don't think anyone at the time could have foreseen that Javascript would become the sophisticated mess with new frameworks displacing the existing ones every other year, but browser-side programming displacing traditional UI toolkits was well on the way by then.
8note 5y ago
2006 was the hey day of flash games, so the moving to browser part was already pretty clear, but that it would be web based APIs less so. canvas was still new/didn't work very well back then iirc.
Jensson 5y ago
It was half a year after the launch of Google docs, pretty sure many had similar views at the time. Feels like the browser side peaked at the time and we are still about there, at least among the stuff I use there isn't anything more complicated than google docs still today 15 years later.
valbaca 5y ago
This insight came even before the V8 JS engine was out. Dude was spot-on

angeland89 5y ago

I find it interesting that to the question of 10x or 100x programmer they never ponder if it exist. They just answers what those people do or are. At least in my book that seals the debate, some of the best says they exist and can describe them. Then they probably exist in larger numbers than outliers in a dataset.

natch 5y ago

So, what is Peter Norvig’s favorite book, I wonder.

agumonkey 5y ago
sometimes he lurks by, maybe you (and we)'ll have an answer
- natch 5y ago
  Yes I was hoping. Perhaps more interesting (or maybe not interesting at all, depending on the reason) is why there was no answer in the original thread.

twic 5y ago

Just sitting here imagining Bjarne rocking out to the Dixie Chicks.

dang 5y ago

One small past thread: Stifflog - Stiff asks, great programmers answer - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=574301 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=574301 - April 2009 (3 comments)

DangitBobby 5y ago

If Guido was aiming for "I don't care for this interview", he nailed it.

alisonkisk 5y ago
He was succinct, not dismissive.