I remember having just left a scala event I was running in a cab, and seeing Martin on a london bridge with a gaggle of guys following him. I wasnt aware he was the student of Nikalus Wirth -- but it makes a lot of sense.<p>It's a shame though, that Wirth's philosophy was, imv, ditched from 90s-00s (where we get: python, js, ruby, ...scala).<p>It seems now language design is rediscovering Wirth and his techniques (see, eg., google's carbon which iirc, seeks to be ast-free single-pass).