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James Gosling: Java, JVM, Emacs, and Computing History [video]

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Re: James Gosling: Java, JVM, Emacs, and Computing History [video]

#21

Post by pmcollins »

teddyh wrote: post #5

Richard Stallman on James Gosling: “[…] a friend of mine told me that because of his work in early development of Gosling Emacs, he had permission from Gosling in a message he had been sent to distribute his version of that. Gosling originally had set up his Emacs and distributed it free and gotten many people to help develop it, under the expectation based on Gosling’s own words in his own manual that he was going t…

James Gosling has contributed more to humanity than the overwhelming majority of people who have ever lived. I think he deserves better than this narrow, one-sided libel.

Re: James Gosling: Java, JVM, Emacs, and Computing History [video]

#22

Post by II2II »

non-entity wrote: post #8
II2II wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I just turned it on while doing housework and paused to listen more carefully to the interesting bits. Sometimes it's nice to listen to a person's own words on their own terms, rather than having those words filtered through the lens of someone else's perspectives. Granted, this one is a bit special to me. I attended the same university as Gosling (decades later) so I could visualize the places and experiences he was…

> It's strange to think that a PDP that I saw in a trash heap may have been the machine he programmed on I certainly hope you don't mean a literal trash heap.

This was over 20 years ago, and the machine itself would have been about 20 years old at that point. At that time, it would have been the norm to dispose of such a machine in such a manner. It was certainly too big to grab for the collection of vintage personal computers I had at the time![1] (To be more specific, it was a disorderly pile of pieces on a dock where equipment was frequently left to be disposed of.)

Of course, I can't be certain it was the machine Gosling used. I don't know how many PDP's the university had. My recollections are also sufficiently vague that I don't remember the exact model, just that it was a PDP composed of many boards. Anyway, the bit about Gosling possibly using it was just a fancy I had while listening to the interview.

[1] Calling those personal computers vintage seems weird now. None of those computers would have been older than 15 years at that point in time, but a 1982 computer would have less in common with a 1997 computer than a 2005 computer with a 2020 one.

Re: James Gosling: Java, JVM, Emacs, and Computing History [video]

#23

Post by nesarkvechnep »

pmcollins wrote: post #21
teddyh wrote: post #5

Richard Stallman on James Gosling: “[…] a friend of mine told me that because of his work in early development of Gosling Emacs, he had permission from Gosling in a message he had been sent to distribute his version of that. Gosling originally had set up his Emacs and distributed it free and gotten many people to help develop it, under the expectation based on Gosling’s own words in his own manual that he was going t…

James Gosling has contributed more to humanity than the overwhelming majority of people who have ever lived. I think he deserves better than this narrow, one-sided libel.

You must be a Java programmer.

Re: James Gosling: Java, JVM, Emacs, and Computing History [video]

#24

Post by fishmaster »

pmcollins wrote: post #21
teddyh wrote: post #5

Richard Stallman on James Gosling: “[…] a friend of mine told me that because of his work in early development of Gosling Emacs, he had permission from Gosling in a message he had been sent to distribute his version of that. Gosling originally had set up his Emacs and distributed it free and gotten many people to help develop it, under the expectation based on Gosling’s own words in his own manual that he was going t…

James Gosling has contributed more to humanity than the overwhelming majority of people who have ever lived. I think he deserves better than this narrow, one-sided libel.

Really? By inventing Java?

Re: James Gosling: Java, JVM, Emacs, and Computing History [video]

#26

Post by Koshkin »

fishmaster wrote: post #24
pmcollins wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

James Gosling has contributed more to humanity than the overwhelming majority of people who have ever lived. I think he deserves better than this narrow, one-sided libel.

Really? By inventing Java?

Well, the "overwhelming majority of people" have not done even that...

Re: James Gosling: Java, JVM, Emacs, and Computing History [video]

#27

Post by imglorp »

giancarlostoro wrote: post #16
mherrmann wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I suspect there may also be another side to this story.

RMS is very critical of things and as much as I have great respect for him I cant just take his side without all the facts. I dont even know a single person paying for emacs today either way. Seems like an old beef thats dead as dead can be considering GNU Emacs seems to have won out. Unless you are Walter Bright, you do you sir, you are awesome! I guess same with Linus who uses Micro Emacs if I remember correctly. I…

RMS is a very black and white, tunnel visioned, ideologue: there's no gray. You can ask him his thoughts about a great new general technology and he'll stop you before you describe it and ask how it pertains to open source; if you don't answer exactly in alignment he will immediately dismiss you and shut down the conversation without hearing the question. (edit, I tried this once in person). He's absolutely correct, having given us the route to modern software reuse, but at the same time a highly dysfunctional person.

Re: James Gosling: Java, JVM, Emacs, and Computing History [video]

#29

Post by piokoch »

fishmaster wrote: post #24
pmcollins wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

James Gosling has contributed more to humanity than the overwhelming majority of people who have ever lived. I think he deserves better than this narrow, one-sided libel.

Really? By inventing Java?

Yeah, like it or not, but technologies that changed the World and gave tremendous boost in adoption of IT were C, SQL, Visual Basic and Java.

Re: James Gosling: Java, JVM, Emacs, and Computing History [video]

#30

Post by jasode »

chrisseaton wrote: post #6

Is the host going to a funeral after recording the podcast with no time to change?

>Is the host going to a funeral after recording the podcast with no time to change?

I've seen your comment go from heavily downvoted (I didn't downvote it) -- to upvoted.

To me, your comment seems mean-spirited and detracts from anything else positive that can be said about the actual content of the interview.

Personally, it didn't occur to me to be bothered by the business suit. For others that agree with gp's funeral comment and upvoted it, can you explain what bugs you about the outfit?

Is the attire signaling pretension?!? If you weren't aware, some of his other videos show how insecure he is with his place in life and how his accomplishments don't compare to those he admires. He's not a pretentious guy. The business suit just seems like a consistent "visual identity" since he goes on the road for interviews. He doesn't have a full studio and the "star power" to attract guests to his home location.

EDIT to reply: "> I was always taught it was disrespectful to wear a black tie because it's reserved for people grieving."

Interesting. I've been to several Catholic/Protestant/Jewish funerals and have never heard of that etiquette rule. I've also seen non-grieving people wear black colored ties to business meetings and formal dinners. Some like the "Men in Black" look.

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