Old guy here -- I came of age in the PDP-11 era. I thought it was funny, just a gentle parody of a certain Im-being-patient writing style.
I am sure the author does not really believe older people can't understand CHERI. One of the original contributors to CHERI is Peter G. Neumann, born 1932, programming since the 1950s. Chisnall (the author of this piece) and Neumann are among the co-authors of a paper on CHERI presented at ASPLOS'24 this year [1]
I guess this shows the risk in using humor in scientific writing -- you never know how it will land.
We are roughly the same age. I did read this as an attempt at humor, but of the same sort as racist or sexist humor, relying on a bigoted "it's funny because it's true" mindset. I suppose the reason is because that sort of sentiment is often seriously held in our industry.
It made it impossible for me to continue reading the paper, though. Ah well.
I am sure the author does not really believe older people can't understand CHERI. One of the original contributors to CHERI is Peter G. Neumann, born 1932, programming since the 1950s. Chisnall (the author of this piece) and Neumann are among the co-authors of a paper on CHERI presented at ASPLOS'24 this year [1]
I guess this shows the risk in using humor in scientific writing -- you never know how it will land.
[1] https://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/research/security/ctsrd/cheri/cheri...