
Jwz and Brendan Eich discuss the origins of JavaScript (2010) - sutro
http://www.jwz.org/blog/2010/10/every-day-i-learn-something-new-and-stupid/
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userbinator
I find it a bit odd that, despite the only numerical type in JS being
floating-point, the majority of JS developers still seem to not have any
better knowledge of how FP math works than those in other languages where
there _are_ integer types.

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sentenza
After seeing the shitstorm on here about the Brendan Eich issue, I was very
confused. Now I remember that I have seen this before and feel the need to
warn you (Americans) about what (could) be coming out of this: The GPPD-
spiral.

The German-Pirate-Party-Death-spiral.

Many of you might have heared about the Pirate Party, and probably some
remeber that, curiously, it was rather successful in Germany. Starting 2009,
the number of party members rose (beyond 10.000) and the party started winning
seats in regional parliaments. At the time, it was primarily focused on its
technology/freedom agenda.

Then something weird happened. As the party tried to expand its programatic
range beyond technology, many very controversial topics were voted into the
program (base-income, de-criminalization of drugs, removal of the incest
paragraph).

Discussions became very heated between those that wanted the party to firmly
anchor itself in the "left" of the political spectrum, and those opposed to
such a move.

And then they started attacking the elected representatives. Every publically
visible person who had done or said something problematic in the past was
publically "shitstormed". The half-life of party leaders sank down to months.
This caused what is essentially the slow death of the party, since, for much
of the time, there were too few people with experience at the top, too few the
press could speak too.

Americans are more vulnerable to this kind of behaviour, since the separation
between professional role and personal acts/views that we have in Europe is
missing.

French presidents have had mistresses, left their wives, German chancellors
have had three failed marriages, or a childless marriage. We had an openly gay
foreign minister and ministers who refused to say "god" in their swearing in
ceremony.

Top American politicians are always married with children church-going
Christians, because the populace will not support "personal weaknesses".

No separation between person and office.

The internet is the ultimate shitstorm-accelerator. If there is no barrier
between the private life and the professional life of highly-exposed figures,
they will fall like flies.

I'm personally an ardent supporter of gay rights issues, but must say that in
this case, the collateral damage could well be as bad as in the first cases in
the German Pirate Party.

Now all the Mozilla employees who want to rise through the ranks must have
personal views that conform to public opinion in the USA. I'm strictly anti-
gun, so I probably would be "shot down" at some point, were I a leading
Mozilla figure.

And don't think this will stop if Eich just goes away.

Let's all hope that Linus or one of the other (unlike Eich) really important
community leaders doesn't have controversial views.

~~~
bowlofpetunias
It annoys me to no end that people try to take the high ground of
reasonableness by equating normal or even controversial personal political,
social or religious views with the extremist hate-mongering of racists,
antisemites and homophobes.

Eich's active support for the notion the gay people cannot have equal civil
rights is well beyond just "controversial". OKCupid summed it up well as
"those who seek to deny love and instead enforce misery, shame and
frustration".

Not every "controversial" view should be treated with equal respect. Vile,
hateful and vicious views warrant shitstorms.

There is a constant pattern in tech to sweep sexism, homophobia and racism
under the rug as "just someones personal views".

~~~
Pacabel
Have you tried looking at this situation from a different viewpoint?

The responses of many of those people who are against Eich in this case can
best be described as "vile, hateful and vicious", to use your words. Their
calls for him to lose his job, or for Mozilla as a whole to suffer boycotts,
can be described as an effort to "enforce misery, shame and frustration".

The problem here is that we have some people claiming to be against
discrimination, yet they in turn have absolutely no problem engaging in such
behavior toward Eich.

I think that this sort of hypocrisy really undermines their cause, and most of
them don't seem to realize this.

~~~
parasubvert
This actually isn't that hard to understand. Discrimination is definitionally
related to systematic prejudice. Their counter-reaction is neither systemic
nor unwarranted (as prejudice is).

One could argue that in this era of social change we should be more tolerant
of anti-gay marriage folks, bigots, etc, as this is a generational divide that
will pass.

However would also could make an argument that when (a) you're a public figure
as the CEO of a major nonprofit and (b) you've publicly stated and financially
supported the potentially bigoted position, you will be the target of counter-
attacks.

So, no I don't shed a tear for Brendan Eich. If the first thing he did as
Mozilla CEO was to hold a press conference to repudiate his prior actions no
that he is a public figure and commit Mozilla to gay-friendliness (not
"internal memo" stuff we've been hearing), there would have been no issue. The
organization is largely identified with its leadership, and this drama is
playing out like a host rejecting a donor organ - this isn't just outside
opinion, Mozilla employees are speaking out!

They are based in California, what did they expect?

~~~
gcp
_They are based in California, what did they expect?_

Well, Prop 8 did pass, so...

~~~
parasubvert
Touché :-). But I meant the larger (more liberal) enclaves like the SF South
Bay.

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ceautery
I notice OKCupid still uses JavaScript. Just sayin'.

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SEMW
To devil's advocate on behalf of okcupid: I don't see that there's any moral
inconsistency about being happy to use something made by someone you consider
problematic, while still not wanting that person to have an ongoing position
of power.

Richard Wagner was an anti-semite. I see nothing contradictory about enjoying
his music while also thinking that (if he was still alive) he shouldn't run an
organisation of musicians which has Jewish members. (To be clear: I'm not
saying I necessarily hold that position wrt Eich, just that contrary to the
parent's implication, it isn't a hypocritical position to hold).

~~~
vezzy-fnord
Except they're explicitly urging for Firefox to be boycotted, so they
certainly have a bone to pick.

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mkr-hn
So does this mean we'll never have supercomputers running simulations with
JavaScript?

~~~
pjc50
I don't see how that follows? Lots of fast systems are FP-only.

~~~
mkr-hn
That was a joke. The only other on-topic comment looked lonely.

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matt__rose
Best Comment? Brendan's house and my nightclub thank us for selling out early
and often.

