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I admire Fabrice Bellard. He is almost certainly a better overall programmer

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Re: I admire Fabrice Bellard. He is almost certainly a better overall programmer

#41

Post by dofm »

manmal wrote: post #40
copperx wrote: post #4

"He is almost certainly a better overall programmer than I am." Hedging the claim with a lot of qualifiers. What's wrong with admitting someone is a better programmer? even giving someone else the benefit of the doubt?

Carmack might think that there are certain areas he will be better due to decades of experience. Overall programmer isn’t a bad qualifier at all, it’s actually making it sound less offhand and more honest.

1) Bellard is

2) avoid qualifiers in personal compliments (unless ironic)

Re: I admire Fabrice Bellard. He is almost certainly a better overall programmer

#42

Post by dofm »

tjpnz wrote: post #11

From the tweet he's replying to: >A quiet French engineer who never moved to Silicon Valley wrote the code that quietly runs the internet. Why do some assume you need to move to SV to make an impact in tech?

I had assumed it was slop but whether or not it is, that is kind of a revealing default isn't it?

Re: I admire Fabrice Bellard. He is almost certainly a better overall programmer

#43

Post by thibaut_barrere »

tjpnz wrote: post #11

From the tweet he's replying to: >A quiet French engineer who never moved to Silicon Valley wrote the code that quietly runs the internet. Why do some assume you need to move to SV to make an impact in tech?

There’s a strong narrative that it’s unreasonable to stay in the EU (“too regulated”, etc.) if you want to hack on real stuff. Yet plenty of us do — Bellard being exhibit A.

Re: I admire Fabrice Bellard. He is almost certainly a better overall programmer

#44

Post by a96 »

defrost wrote: post #25
pdpi wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Tech people" aren't one single homogeneous mass. His name is unlikely to show up in the same conversation as, say, DHH.

That's understood in the comment which explicitly indicates that there are many programming circles and that Bellard is known in a number of them (but not all). eg: I grew up in the Australian Kimberley region (kind of remote), spent decades in geophysical mapping, multi channel data processing, computational algebra, and other odd niches, have no real interest in SV, and am quite familiar with Bellard's work. No ide…

https://tekin.co.uk/2025/09/the-ruby-community-has-a-dhh-pro...

https://community.frame.work/t/framework-supporting-far-righ...

Re: I admire Fabrice Bellard. He is almost certainly a better overall programmer

#45

Post by croes »

tjpnz wrote: post #11

From the tweet he's replying to: >A quiet French engineer who never moved to Silicon Valley wrote the code that quietly runs the internet. Why do some assume you need to move to SV to make an impact in tech?

Some assume that everything noteworthy regarding the internet is SV based.

Re: I admire Fabrice Bellard. He is almost certainly a better overall programmer

#47

Post by pandaforce »

Bellard hasn't been involved in FFmpeg for *over 20 years* at this point, and more like 23. His code was not great and reeked of sphagetti due to FFmpeg back then lacking any framework for code sharing between components and codecs. These days none of his code survives. Everything that became of FFmpeg is because of other developers. Yet he's treated as the one-and-only BDFL of FFmpeg, with any other developers building upon his wise framework since time immemorial. These days all he does is hold the copyright, which lets him, *and only him*, elect which project/leader may call itself FFmpeg. He's an unelected dictator, who already used his powers once to ostracize libav developers in favor of another dictator.

Re: I admire Fabrice Bellard. He is almost certainly a better overall programmer

#48

Post by [deleted] »

vkazanov wrote: post #26
KeplerBoy wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

True, it's a weird thing to say. I am in no position to rank them, I assume they are both excellent at their niches (granted bellard seems to be interested in a lot of niches) but it never hurt anybody to be humble in this position.

Well, carmack is THE game dev of 90s and 2000s fame. His 2d/3d engine work was outstanding back in the day. Bellard did multiple breakthroughs: ffmpeg, qemu, tcc, jslinux, a state of the art FFT algorithm. I probable skipped a few. With all due respect to carmack, a single ballard's projects would put anybody into the eternal hall of programmers fame right next to Linus, Carmack, Stallman, the Bell labs crowd and oth…

[deleted]

Re: I admire Fabrice Bellard. He is almost certainly a better overall programmer

#49

Post by taway20260616 »

shevy-java wrote: post #15
sph wrote: post #3

First time I see his picture, and it’s a bit like someone’s revealed the identity of Satoshi Nakamoto when it’s clear they are going out of their way to protect their privacy and stay out of the limelight. My impression is the guy had always better things to do than engage with the greater internet, like thinking real hard and solving difficult problems. Much respect to his work, but even more respect to his work eth…

I imagined him with wild, long hair; possibly tattoos, huge and heavy set. The picture destroyed my imagination - and now I want my imagination back. :(

If you want your "imagination" back, go back to watching Netflix and Hollywood cliches.

Re: I admire Fabrice Bellard. He is almost certainly a better overall programmer

#50

Post by infofarmer »

hamburgererror wrote: post #35

> He just keeps shipping. > He just wrote code. > He was not done. > He kept going. > He is still shipping. That guy talks like a scrum master, this linkedin bullshit writing style is just so bad...

Obviously an LLM and sad Carmack engages with slop to normalize it.
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