
Simon Peyton Jones Elected into the Royal Society Fellowship - augb
http://lambda-the-ultimate.org/node/5332
======
emeryberger
Well deserved and absolutely couldn't happen to a nicer guy. After giving a
talk at PLDI when I was a grad student, Simon made a point of walking up to me
and saying "Nice talk." That had me walking on air for quite a while (if you
watch the videos below, you will understand why).

Now, Simon got the award for his (fantastic) research and for his impact on CS
education in the UK, but everyone in all of computer science should set aside
a couple of hours this weekend to watch his talks on "How to Give a Good
Research Talk" and "How to Write a Great Research Paper." Go ahead, I'll wait.

[http://research.microsoft.com/apps/video/default.aspx?id=168...](http://research.microsoft.com/apps/video/default.aspx?id=168648)

[http://research.microsoft.com/apps/video/default.aspx?id=168...](http://research.microsoft.com/apps/video/default.aspx?id=168649)

Also, Simon's home page is here: [http://research.microsoft.com/en-
us/people/simonpj/](http://research.microsoft.com/en-us/people/simonpj/)

~~~
nv-vn
Haven't had the chance to meet him ever, but watching his talks or hearing
about him from others, it seems like he really breaks the Haskell/functional
programmer stereotypes of being a pretentious asshole or being unwelcoming to
beginners. Wish people would pay more attention to some of the awesome people
like SPJ rather than focusing on the vocal minority.

~~~
axman6
#haskell on freenode has always had s reputation of being open, welcoming and
helpful. Try not to mistake pretension for someone talking about something you
don't yet understand, which is very often the case when someone is accused of
being an pretentious arsehole. Simon is by no means alone in his manner and
friendliness within the Haskell community.

~~~
nv-vn
For the record, I don't think that the Haskell community is particularly bad.
It's just something that I've heard plenty of times from people who have been
exposed to the (tiny) bad parts of this community before learning the language
that feel unwelcome (think the zealot-y types who reject any discussion as bad
if it doesn't involve their favorite language (and this problem isn't unique
to Haskell)).

~~~
lil1729
There are certain people in the community who are very opinionated. Some go
one step ahead and abuse others who don't use their favourite language. For
instance, see these two posts (comments).

[1]
[https://web.archive.org/web/20150628010942/http://timkellogg...](https://web.archive.org/web/20150628010942/http://timkellogg.me/blog/2014/01/19/I-get-
excited-about-go)

[2] [http://roseland.io/blog/2014/05/10/number-golang-the-next-
gr...](http://roseland.io/blog/2014/05/10/number-golang-the-next-great-
teaching-language/#comment-1379154769)

These comments are unfortunate. These two individuals, in no means represent
the entire community. But such people are toxic for an otherwise great bunch
of people like SPJ, Phil Wadler and other folks.

~~~
yokohummer7
The problem is that the brand new Haskell Programming book, which seems to be
recommended nowadays among Haskellers, is being written by bitemyapp (the one
described in the first link). He's been bitching other languages, especially
Go. He even stated Haskell is simpler than Go, which just shows his twisted
reality. It is very unfortunate that such a toxic person is influential to the
community.

~~~
forkerenok
On the contrary, I think that is a good side of Chris Allen (@bytemyapp), he
truly believes that everyone (I'm not even narrowing it down to software
engineers) has capability to comprehend the core ideas of Haskell and become
as proficient with it as you are with other languages and then delve into more
evolved topics when you feel like it. Like a true evangelist. He is frustrated
with misrepresentation of Haskell in wider programmers' community and to his
credit he is working hard to fix this. (Though his book is quite pricey :) ) I
don't really know how much of a Haskell fanatic he is, but one should not turn
his back on a person just because he is saying something you disagree with or
don't want to hear (like belittling other languages).

~~~
danieldk
_Like a true evangelist. He is frustrated with misrepresentation of Haskell in
wider programmers ' community and to his credit he is working hard to fix
this._

Learn yourself a Haskell was a great book. Many friends/colleagues picked up
Haskell with that book and were really happy with it. @bitemyapp 's book may
be better (I don't know, I didn't read it), but he seems to try to bash LYAH
at nearly every possible occasion.

[http://ircbrowse.net/browse/haskell?id=19614985&timestamp=14...](http://ircbrowse.net/browse/haskell?id=19614985&timestamp=1418037954#t1418037954)

[https://lobste.rs/s/5pqc1y/learn_you_a_haskell_for_great_goo...](https://lobste.rs/s/5pqc1y/learn_you_a_haskell_for_great_good/comments/gyivtq#c_gyivtq)

[http://bitemyapp.com/posts/2014-12-31-functional-
education.h...](http://bitemyapp.com/posts/2014-12-31-functional-
education.html)

I think this is undeserved and perhaps toxic (especially coming from someone
who wrote a competing work).

~~~
tene
Personally, when first learning Haskell, I found LYAH intolerable. I've known
people who did get a lot of value out of it, but it's not for everyone. I
really couldn't stand it. I haven't bothered to read HPFFP yet, as it's rather
more basic than is useful to me anymore, but a friend that had similar
complaints about LYAH has been finding HPFFP incredibly helpful. There really
are some serious problems with other major educational resources, especially
for some audiences, and I don't think it's a problem to recognize that.

------
carterschonwald
Simon Peyton Jones is the mister Rogers of computer science. He is an
incredible role model for how to treat others while managing to be balance
being clear, benign, and constructive. (I've been a recipient of such feedback
a time or three, and It was incredibly helpful for me each time. ) well
deserved!

~~~
tmptmp
>>Simon Peyton Jones is the mister Rogers of computer science.

Can you please tell whom are you referring to here with the term "the mister
Rogers"?

~~~
alcari
Mister Rogers[0] was the host of an American children's show, and was known
for being extremely nice, both on and off the show.

[0]:
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fred_Rogers](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fred_Rogers)

~~~
tmptmp
Thanks for the reply. I am not an American, so I didn't get it.

Also, I didn't know that politely asking for clarification is a valid reason
for downvotes on HN.

------
quchen
I recently read his (first) paper [1] on the Spineless Tagless Graph
Redunction Machine (STG), which forms one of the lower-level backends of the
main Haskell compiler GHC.

After understanding the paper well enough to implement it from scratch
(without any further literature), I have to say, albeit some 25 years late,
how impressed I am by both his research and his ability to convey it. If
you're interested in understanding how Haskell evaluation is done, I cannot
recommend the paper enough.

[1]:
[http://research.microsoft.com/apps/pubs/default.aspx?id=6708...](http://research.microsoft.com/apps/pubs/default.aspx?id=67083)

------
shadytrees
The Dumbledore of functional programming has just been awarded the Order of
Merlin.

------
johnklarson
Shows you that you don't need the union card of a PhD to do world-leading
research in CS. Inspiring!

~~~
mathetic
Yes, but he has followed career of a researcher with 7 years as a lecturer and
9 years as a professor before joining industrial research.

------
andy_boot
I met him once back then I didn't know who he was. Weirdly I was reading the
book: [http://www.codersatwork.com/](http://www.codersatwork.com/) at the time
- ofcourse I got a shock when I realised he was the next chapter!

Anyway he was a nice guy.

~~~
flurdy
I sat next to him at a conference once (scala-exchange). Had a nice chat
before the keynote started. I had no idea who he was. But when at the Q&A he
started grilling the speaker the fog lifted and I realised who was next to me.
And yes, he was a nice guy.

------
aseipp
I'm happy and honored every day that a nobody like me gets to work with Simon,
and talk to him regularly.

His work on Computing at School, in particular his ICFP 2013 keynote,
continues to be incredibly inspiring to me. Aside from his wonderful technical
prowess.

------
davidw
That guy is awesome.

I went to a conference in Portugal a number of years ago, and met him at the
dinner for the speakers. He was super humble, and quite interested in my own
very practical experience as a consultant/contractor and what kinds of
problems I faced.

I came away deeply impressed not only by how bright he is, but what a good
person too.

