I’m seeing many younger programmers picking up C++. The average age at C++ events over the past year has been declining rapidly as the audience sizes grow with more and younger people in addition to the C++ veterans. But this one just beats all [Facebook link added]: A six-year-old child from Bangladesh is hoping to [...]
Archive for the ‘Opinion & Editorial’ Category
World’s youngest C++ programmer?
Posted in C++, Opinion & Editorial, Software Development on 2012-04-30 | 15 Comments »
“Mobile” vs. “PC”?
Posted in Apple, Hardware, Microsoft, Opinion & Editorial, Web on 2012-04-24 | 22 Comments »
In answering a reader question about Flash today, I linked to Adobe’s November press release and I commented: Granted, Adobe says it’s abandoning Flash ‘only for new mobile device browsers while still supporting it for PC browsers.’ This is still a painful statement because [in part] … the distinction between mobile devices and PCs is [...]
Reader Q&A: Flash Redux
Posted in Apple, Microsoft, Opinion & Editorial, Reader Q&A, Software Development, Web on 2012-04-24 | 5 Comments »
David Braun asked: @Tom @Herb: What’s so wrong with flash that it should be boycotted? Have I been being abused by it in some way I’m not aware of? Also,does HTML5 have any bearing on the subject? I’m not saying it should be boycotted, only that I avoid it. Here’s what I wrote two years [...]
Welcome to the Jungle
Posted in Concurrency, Hardware, Opinion & Editorial, Software Development on 2011-12-29 | 10 Comments »
With so much happening in the computing world, now seemed like the right time to write “Welcome to the Jungle” – a sequel to my earlier “The Free Lunch Is Over” essay. Here’s the introduction: Welcome to the Jungle In the twilight of Moore’s Law, the transitions to multicore processors, GPU computing, and HaaS [...]
A Passing of Giants
Posted in Friday Thoughts, Opinion & Editorial on 2011-11-02 |
I don’t normally blog poetry, but the passing of our giants this past month has put me in such a mood. . What is built becomes our future Hand-constructed, stone by stone Quarried by our elders’ labors Fashioned with their strength and bone Dare to dream, and dare to conquer Fears by building castles grand [...]
John McCarthy
Posted in Opinion & Editorial, Software Development on 2011-10-25 | 15 Comments »
What a sad, horrible month. First Steve Jobs, then Dennis Ritchie, and now John McCarthy. We are losing many of the greats all at once. If you haven’t heard of John McCarthy, you’re probably learning about his many important contributions now. Some examples: He’s the inventor of Lisp, the second-oldest high-level programming language, younger than [...]
2000 Interview: Dennis Ritchie, Bjarne Stroustrup, and James Gosling
Posted in C++, Java, Opinion & Editorial on 2011-10-13 | 3 Comments »
Dennis Ritchie gave very few interviews, but I was lucky enough to be able to get one of them. Back in 2000, when I was editor of C++ Report, I interviewed the creators of C, C++, and Java all together: The C Family of Languages: Interview with Dennis Ritchie, Bjarne Stroustrup, and James Gosling This [...]
Dennis Ritchie
Posted in Opinion & Editorial on 2011-10-12 | 79 Comments »
What a sad week. Rob Pike reports that Dennis Ritchie also has passed away. Ritchie was one of the pioneers of computer science, and a well-deserved Turing winner for his many contributions, notably the creation of C — by far the most influential programming language in history, and still going strong today. Aside: Speaking of [...]
Steve Jobs
Posted in Opinion & Editorial on 2011-10-06 | 8 Comments »
Today our industry is much less than it was yesterday. We have lost one of the great innovators. Even more importantly, Steve Jobs’ family has lost a husband and brother and father, and our thoughts are with them. What can be said that hasn’t been said? Steve has been arguably the single most influential driver [...]
2010: Cyberpunk World
Posted in Friday Thoughts, Opinion & Editorial on 2010-12-31 | 14 Comments »
Speaking as a neutral observer with exactly zero opinion on any political question, and not even a cyberpunk reader given that I’ve read about two such novels in my life: Is it just me, or do the last few months’ global news headlines read like they were ghostwritten by Neal Stephenson? I wonder if we [...]
