Tag: Coders At Work

Seibel: Do you feel like programmers and computer scientists are aware enough of the history of our field? It is, after all, a pretty short history. Knuth: There aren’t too many that are scholars. Even when I started writing my books in 1963, I didn’t think people knew what had happened in 1959 I was

Seibel: You’re an academic but also have worked on big systems and have done some work in industry. How do you see the relation between academic computer science and industrial practice? Knuth: It’s gone in waves. In the ’60s the academics were way ahead of the industry and the programs that were produced in industry,

Seibel: Do you think you were a dramatically better programmer when you finished TeX than when you started? Knuth: Well, yes, because of literate programming. Seibel: So you had better tools, but had you actually improved your skills? Knuth: I learned a terrific amount while I was doing it. One of the things I learned

Seibel: You were the only person I contacted about this book who had a really strong reaction to the word coder in the title. How would you prefer to describe yourself? Deutsch: I have to say at this point in my life I have even a mildly negative reaction to the word programmer. If you

Perhaps the most forgotten for the massive public of the book. But, if you use the REPL you you are making a silent tribute, because the first REPL was created by Laurence Peter Deutsch. Link to Wikipedia Seibel: So is it OK for people who don’t have a talent for systems-level thinking to work on

Daniel (Dan) Ingalls is one of the creators of Smalltak. Other interesting development of engals was the Context Menu Seibel: Do you have any tips on how to be a good technical leader? Ingalls: The first thing is being clear about what you’re trying to do. The job is to get a clear vision. If

Seibel: So when you’re writing English, you’re obviously writing for a human reader and you seem to contrast that to writing software, which is for a computer. But lots of people—such as Knuth—make a big point that when you’re writing code you’re writing as much for human readers as for the computer. Steele: Oh, that’s

Seibel: Do you think languages are getting better? You keep designing them, so hopefully you think it’s a worthwhile pursuit. Is it easier to write software now because of advances that we’ve made? Steele: Well, it’s much easier now to write the kinds of programs we were trying to write 30 years ago. But I