
Bryan Cantrill interviews Arthur Whitney (2009) - lelf
https://queue.acm.org/detail.cfm?id=1531242
======
bcantrill
So, one interesting detail about this interview: audio was recorded. The
version in print is abridged, and I would love for the ACM to release the
audio -- if only for the incredibly long (and mind-blown) pause after Arthur
told me that he felt that the closest analogue to software is poetry...

~~~
eternalban
...which explains his language design choices.

Stronger contenders for the "software analogue" remain film, theater, music,
and architecture.

------
lelf
The pdf is easier to read and contains photos:
[https://dl.acm.org/ft_gateway.cfm?id=1531242&ftid=316753&dwn...](https://dl.acm.org/ft_gateway.cfm?id=1531242&ftid=316753&dwn=1)

------
dang
A thread from 2014:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8476120](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8476120)

A couple from 2009:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=650149](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=650149)

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=561443](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=561443)

I remember seeing that at the time but didn't notice who was the interviewer!

~~~
akkartik
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=561443#562884](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=561443#562884)

Does anybody know how array languages handle pointers and trees?

~~~
refset
I believe Aaron Hsu's work on tree processing for Co-dfns [0] is a novel
example of tree handling - a data parallel compiler for efficient compilation
on a GPU using extensive tree-oriented "nanopass" transformations [1].

[0] [https://github.com/Co-dfns/Co-dfns](https://github.com/Co-dfns/Co-dfns)

[1]
[https://dyalog.tv/Dyalog18/?v=hzPd3umu78g](https://dyalog.tv/Dyalog18/?v=hzPd3umu78g)

~~~
akkartik
Holy crap, that video is mind-blowing. Thank you! I was vaguely aware of Co-
dfns before, but now it's squarely on my radar.

------
mushufasa
"In C I never learned to use the debugger so I used to never make mistakes,"

~~~
aasasd
I can sort of sympathize with that sentiment. I'm not a C guy, but I've become
so tired of setting up the stack for a new freelance project and/or running
the log-and-debug dance, that it's often easier to just read through the code
carefully, ‘running’ it in my head―the problem might jump out at me and I'll
know where to dig. (Also helps with estimates before anything is done, and
with filtering questionable projects.)

As they say, “It's one dollar for hitting it with the hammer, a hundred for
knowing where to hit.”

