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Joe Armstrong has died

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Re: Joe Armstrong has died

#32

Post by dberg »

I met Joe in 2012 when I spoke at the Erlang Conf in SF. he is the reason I discovered functional programming and the whole concept of message passing (actor model) in distributed systems. Quite a legend and contributor to the world of computer science. RIP joe.

Re: Joe Armstrong has died

#34

Post by em-bee »

1f60c wrote: post #14
dhuramas wrote: post #2

A great loss to the community. Even though I don’t use Erlang, I’ve always been enamored by it’s unique features. Black Ribbon please.

It seems like the black ribbon has now been added to the site.

it would be nice if the black bar or some added keyword in the title could link to this discussion thread to make it easier to find.

Re: Joe Armstrong has died

#36

Post by armitron »

Life is short and Joe went much younger than one would expect. When I find myself doing something that I do not enjoy, I'm always trying to meditate to the moment of my future-death in order to psychologically slap myself in the face and re-evaluate what it is that I'm doing. We only get so many years and we should strive to use them to the best of our ability and potential. Joe Armstrong certainly did that. RIP.

Re: Joe Armstrong has died

#37

Post by jwatzman »

Back in 2015, I somehow ended up as part of a panel discussion at the end of a conference. The panel was going to include Joe Armstrong, Don Syme (inventor of F#), Tony Hoare (!), and myself (a nobody compared to any of them). During the conference, I wanted to meet each of the other folks on the panel, and ended up in a somewhat lengthy conversation with Joe Armstrong -- mostly about Erlang, but at some point the panel itself came up. I mentioned how nervous I was; me, sitting on a panel with such other esteemed and brilliant folks -- of course referring to all of the other people on the panel, including Joe Armstrong himself. I'll never forget his response: "yeah, me too! Wow, Tony Hoare, seriously?!"

I'm not sure if he deliberately misunderstood me or not, but it definitely put me more at ease, realising that there's always someone bigger, even for the folks you see as bigger than you!

So sad to learn of his passing. RIP.

Re: Joe Armstrong has died

#38

Post by mises »

sjtgraham wrote: post #13

Very sad news. Thank you to HN mods for commemorating Joe's passing with the black bar. His contribution to our world is immeasurable. Although I never had the pleasure of meeting him in person, by all accounts he was much loved. Joe you will be missed.

For those of us who haven't seen it before, would you please explain what this means? I assume it is some sort of sign of mourning?

Re: Joe Armstrong has died

#40

Post by nextos »

dpeck wrote: post #9

That is so sad, he was in his late 60s and it seemed like he had a lot of life left in him, talking about how software can get better and having a great (and sometimes snarky) outlook on the profession. Highly recommend his thesis (2003) and a few of his great interviews/presentations for anyone who isn’t familiar with Joe, it captures a lot of what he thought about and pushed for in his professional life. http://erl…

I came here to say the same thing. His thesis is extremely readable and illuminating on the topic of reliable distributed systems.
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