Growing a Language, by Guy Steele

When I saw Guy give this talk I was absolutely floored. Both the content and the style was impressive, the hand drawn transparencies, layered one on top of the other. It was the first time I realized one could give a talk with a high degree of style, that their were geniuses in our field. Guy and Gabriel's HOPL 50-in-50 talk was also very stylistic, but not as profound in content (more like entertainment).<p>Definitely one of the smartest and most talented persons in our field (OO PL).

Some of the previous submissions:<p><a href="http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=68918" rel="nofollow">http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=68918</a><p><a href="http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=92542" rel="nofollow">http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=92542</a><p><a href="http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=122989" rel="nofollow">http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=122989</a><p><a href="http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=150863" rel="nofollow">http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=150863</a><p><a href="http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=152311" rel="nofollow">http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=152311</a> &#60;- 7 comments<p><a href="http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=626380" rel="nofollow">http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=626380</a><p><a href="http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=827107" rel="nofollow">http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=827107</a><p><a href="http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2359174" rel="nofollow">http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2359174</a> &#60;- 21 comments<p>This is a fabulous talk that I thoroughly commend. It's also, perhaps, for a slightly limited audience, but it shouldn't be. I think every programmer should see the whole thing, but most won't bother. Which is a shame.

Sadly, since the talk was recorded in 1998 only generics have been added to Java. In addition, generics based on erasure may have been added as a wart that can't easily be removed.<p>Happily, John Rose recently posted a proposal on how value types and tuples might look when added to Java:<p><a href="https://blogs.oracle.com/jrose/entry/value_types_in_the_vm" rel="nofollow">https://blogs.oracle.com/jrose/entry/value_types_in_the_vm</a>

⍝ I'm sure that GLS knows this, but ∆ (delta) is a valid APL symbol (APL\SV) that looks like one of the primitives but may be user-defined. As I recall (it's been a while since I sat in front of a Selectric with an appropriate typeball or a real 3270 with an overflowing ashtray sitting next to it), it's unfortunately the only one, so it was understandably handwaved away.

Steele's approach to computer logic is always a delight.