Many points hit home: * "I never comment anything because I’m always trying to make it so the code itself is the comment."
* "the best thing is just to get something running, and then I’ll redo it probably 10 or 20 times until I can’t get it any smaller." * "the elegant code is always the shortest code" * "there are no libraries: those 50 operations are it. Everybody builds from there, and the resulting programs are extremely short." * "What do you think the analog for software is? -- Poetry." The last exchange is hilarious, with the interviewer, Bryan Cantrill, author of DTrace, genuinely baffled in disbelief. (speaking of a new incarnation of a programming language) BC Are you actually redoing the implementation, or are there going to be semantic differences as well? AW The implementation is 100 percent new. I write everything from scratch, so the C code is entirely different but the semantics are about 95 percent the same. BC You start over in terms of your C code? You take all that and throw it out? AW Yes, completely. BC What does it feel like to part with all that code that’s so lovingly created? AW I love starting from scratch—and it’s stupid because doing the parser, tokenizer, and printer takes me months. BC Do you find that you can come up with a better solution? AW I think they’re getting a little bit better, but I think I’m converging. BC Is that advice you would give to practitioners: to throw out more? AW Yes, but in business it’s hard to do that. BC Especially when it’s working! AW But I love throwing it all out. ----- Original Message ---- > From: Richard Hill <[email protected]> > To: Chat forum <[email protected]> > Sent: Tuesday, April 14, 2009 1:25:55 AM > Subject: [Jchat] Arthur Whitney > > Copied from comp.lang.apl > Btw, I got the link without paying. > Very interesting reading. > Richard Hill > > Bryan Cantrill, "Interview - A Conversation with Arthur Whitney", ACM > Queue > vol. 7, no. 2, pp. 12- 19 (Feb/Mar 2009) > > http://mags.acm.org/queue/20090203/ may require ACM membership or > institutional subscription. > http://queue.acm.org > > > The interview discusses Arthur Whitney's boyhood introduction to APL > and its possible influcence on A, A+, K and Q. Arthur mentions Roger > Hui and J and thinking in Cantonese and poetry, but does not mention > writing the very first preliminary implementation of J. > > Bryan Cantrill, "Interview - A Conversation with Arthur Whitney", ACM > Queue > vol. 7, no. 2, pp. 12- 19 (Feb/Mar 2009) > > http://mags.acm.org/queue/20090203/ may require ACM membership or > institutional subscription. > http://queue.acm.org > > > The interview discusses Arthur Whitney's boyhood introduction to APL > and its possible influcence on A, A+, K and Q. Arthur mentions Roger > Hui and J and thinking in Cantonese and poetry, but does not mention > writing the very first preliminary implementation of J. > > > > ---------------------------------------------------------------------- > For information about J forums see http://www.jsoftware.com/forums.htm ---------------------------------------------------------------------- For information about J forums see http://www.jsoftware.com/forums.htm
