4 ms·

I don't think live-coding compilers puts anyone above criticism.

tialaramex 4y ago
I'm not even sure what "live-coding compilers" would mean. What's "live" about it? I've watched people live coding audio software. That's a performance, like jamming or rap battling where you make music spontaneously for an audience. It's a distinct skill from being able to polish stuff in a studio, just like playing a guitar or singing live is a distinct skill, it's even distinct from working with a loop sampler (like Marc Rebillet) although it's often related. But for a compiler, what's "live"? Somebody writes some code and you... tokenize it in real time, transform it into some intermediate representation, optimise that and then spit out machine code? No? Then it's not "live coding", you're just talking about how he got paid to stream on Twitch or whatever. Loads of people do that. Ketroc streamed his last minute strategies for the recent SC2 AI tournament, he's not even a "professional" programmer, half his audience haven't seen Java before.
- kelnos 4y ago
  "Live coding" just means that you are writing code in front of an audience. All that means in this case is that while he was working on his compiler, he was recording and streaming what he was doing.
benreesman 4y ago
I’m saying that John Blow works on fairly difficult software projects and shows the process, mistakes and all. That’s takes a lot of both confidence and humility. I tend to make more mistakes the first 2 or 3 times I pair program with someone, I can only imagine with 10k people watching my every mistake. Add to this that John Blow is such an exemplar of the entrepreneurial spirit that this site has basically its foundational value. The guy worked in the rat race for awhile, saved a modest amount to self-fund building Braid. Braid smashed every record both commercially and critically for what one guy in a garage could do in games. He took all that money, hired a few people carefully, and built The Witness, not on fucking Unity or something, but from the shaders up so that it would have a unique look and not be a clone of something else. The Witness was also a huge commercial and critical success. His most recent project is, uh, ambitious. I don’t know if it’s going to prove feasible. But I’m sure as hell rooting for success rather than failure. Now mostly this is directed at the auth or the post, but you’ve kind of signed up for a little of this: what the fuck is your CV?
- drakonka 4y ago
  Thank you for the rundown on Jonathan Blow. I've worked in game development for over a decade and am familiar with his games and accomplishments, but maybe it'll be useful to someone else. If you want to direct a question to the author of the post you might want to reach out to them directly as I'm not their proxy.
  - benreesman 4y ago
    Yeah I want to emphasize that my reply is kind of to all the peanut gallery stuff on this thread, not trying to single you out. If you work in games then you know that John Blow is by many measures the most demonstrably successful game developer without a big studio behind him, others might not. Talking about this stuff on the Internet is a sloppy, haphazard business: deep insight rarely fits in a tweet. I don’t mind that the blog author is not only saying ridiculous things but naming-and shaming earnest, serious pros into the bargain. I mind that so many people on this site, which I do care about, are lining up behind that bullshit.
    - bob29 4y ago
      >many measures the most demonstrably successful game developer without a big studio ex gamer here (player only, no idea about the game making industry), never heard of him or any games. Is he really the most successful? From the outside i would have guessed hte most successful indy game dev, based on how much they're talked about, would be something like: dwarf fortress, minecraft, flappy birds, wordle...
      - koshergweilo 4y ago
        He's really only a recognizable figure in the puzzle game space. Both of his games are highly esteemed, with The Witness in particular praised as "the dark souls of puzzle games." All this said, puzzle games are harder to design than to develop and IMHO his past success only qualifies him as a great designer rather than the general computing guru he proclaims himself to be.
- 4y ago

I'm not even sure what "live-coding compilers" would mean. What's "live" about it? I've watched people live coding audio software. That's a performance, like jamming or rap battling where you make music spontaneously for an audience. It's a distinct skill from being able to polish stuff in a studio, just like playing a guitar or singing live is a distinct skill, it's even distinct from working with a loop sampler (like Marc Rebillet) although it's often related. But for a compiler, what's "live"? Somebody writes some code and you... tokenize it in real time, transform it into some intermediate representation, optimise that and then spit out machine code? No? Then it's not "live coding", you're just talking about how he got paid to stream on Twitch or whatever. Loads of people do that. Ketroc streamed his last minute strategies for the recent SC2 AI tournament, he's not even a "professional" programmer, half his audience haven't seen Java before.

kelnos 4y ago
"Live coding" just means that you are writing code in front of an audience. All that means in this case is that while he was working on his compiler, he was recording and streaming what he was doing.

benreesman 4y ago

I’m saying that John Blow works on fairly difficult software projects and shows the process, mistakes and all. That’s takes a lot of both confidence and humility. I tend to make more mistakes the first 2 or 3 times I pair program with someone, I can only imagine with 10k people watching my every mistake. Add to this that John Blow is such an exemplar of the entrepreneurial spirit that this site has basically its foundational value. The guy worked in the rat race for awhile, saved a modest amount to self-fund building Braid. Braid smashed every record both commercially and critically for what one guy in a garage could do in games. He took all that money, hired a few people carefully, and built The Witness, not on fucking Unity or something, but from the shaders up so that it would have a unique look and not be a clone of something else. The Witness was also a huge commercial and critical success. His most recent project is, uh, ambitious. I don’t know if it’s going to prove feasible. But I’m sure as hell rooting for success rather than failure. Now mostly this is directed at the auth or the post, but you’ve kind of signed up for a little of this: what the fuck is your CV?

drakonka 4y ago
Thank you for the rundown on Jonathan Blow. I've worked in game development for over a decade and am familiar with his games and accomplishments, but maybe it'll be useful to someone else. If you want to direct a question to the author of the post you might want to reach out to them directly as I'm not their proxy.
- benreesman 4y ago
  Yeah I want to emphasize that my reply is kind of to all the peanut gallery stuff on this thread, not trying to single you out. If you work in games then you know that John Blow is by many measures the most demonstrably successful game developer without a big studio behind him, others might not. Talking about this stuff on the Internet is a sloppy, haphazard business: deep insight rarely fits in a tweet. I don’t mind that the blog author is not only saying ridiculous things but naming-and shaming earnest, serious pros into the bargain. I mind that so many people on this site, which I do care about, are lining up behind that bullshit.
  - bob29 4y ago
    >many measures the most demonstrably successful game developer without a big studio ex gamer here (player only, no idea about the game making industry), never heard of him or any games. Is he really the most successful? From the outside i would have guessed hte most successful indy game dev, based on how much they're talked about, would be something like: dwarf fortress, minecraft, flappy birds, wordle...
    - koshergweilo 4y ago
      He's really only a recognizable figure in the puzzle game space. Both of his games are highly esteemed, with The Witness in particular praised as "the dark souls of puzzle games." All this said, puzzle games are harder to design than to develop and IMHO his past success only qualifies him as a great designer rather than the general computing guru he proclaims himself to be.
4y ago