Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Letter to a young programmer

neopythonic.blogspot.ca

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

1–10 of 32 posts

Re: Letter to a young programmer

#2

Post by AlexanderDhoore »

From SICP [1]:

This book is dedicated, in respect and admiration, to the spirit that lives in the computer.

"I think that it's extraordinarily important that we in computer science keep fun in computing. When it started out, it was an awful lot of fun. Of course, the paying customers got shafted every now and then, and after a while we began to take their complaints seriously. We began to feel as if we really were responsible for the successful, error-free perfect use of these machines. I don't think we are. I think we're responsible for stretching them, setting them off in new directions, and keeping fun in the house. I hope the field of computer science never loses its sense of fun. Above all, I hope we don't become missionaries. Don't feel as if you're Bible salesmen. The world has too many of those already. What you know about computing other people will learn. Don't feel as if the key to successful computing is only in your hands. What's in your hands, I think and hope, is intelligence: the ability to see the machine as more than when you were first led up to it, that you can make it more."

Alan J. Perlis (April 1, 1922-February 7, 1990)

[1] http://mitpress.mit.edu/sicp/

Re: Letter to a young programmer

#3

Post by systems »

a bit of topic

but I remember I read something for guido van rossum, i always wanted to find it again, and read it to remember the details

what i remember of it, is that guido was saying something in the line of ... that one can spend tremendous amount of time editing html, crafting html by hand, and make it perfect ... but that this would be a waste of time because most developers nowadays use template engines that generate html, or use WYSIWYG tool ... and that we should focus on more interesting problems

again, it was something like that, i tried to find it, since for ever, to get a better read of this view ... but i just cant

maybe my memory is tricking me, maybe it was not guido

but anyway, this quote in the article reminded me of this statement ... the idea ... that we should find more interesting problems that we can use computers for

Re: Letter to a young programmer

#7

Post by fsck--off »

AlexanderDhoore wrote: post #2

From SICP [1]: This book is dedicated, in respect and admiration, to the spirit that lives in the computer. "I think that it's extraordinarily important that we in computer science keep fun in computing. When it started out, it was an awful lot of fun. Of course, the paying customers got shafted every now and then, and after a while we began to take their complaints seriously. We began to feel as if we really were re…

Here's my favorite SICP related quote:

  Somebody mailed me a copy of SICP. Now what would they mean
  by that...? 

  - Guido van Rossum, May 18 2009
https://twitter.com/gvanrossum/status/1838308947

Re: Letter to a young programmer

#8

Post by marquis »

cowmixtoo wrote: post #6

When I taught Python to my kid and a few other kids that live around my house a coupl of years ago, Guido was gracious enough to sign these head-shots for me to give to each kids as their graduation present. https://plus.google.com/photos/108306457281321389001/albums/...

May I ask if you kept a curriculum, or what the goal was for teaching, to keep the kids interested towards building a working feature/product?

Re: Letter to a young programmer

#9

Post by city41 »

cowmixtoo wrote: post #6

When I taught Python to my kid and a few other kids that live around my house a coupl of years ago, Guido was gracious enough to sign these head-shots for me to give to each kids as their graduation present. https://plus.google.com/photos/108306457281321389001/albums/...

I'm not sure what to make of that. It feels both nice and oddly narcissistic at the same time. I'm not that familiar with Guido though, maybe I just don't understand his style.

Re: Letter to a young programmer

#10

Post by _xhok »

Python was my third language; I wish it had been my first. It's just so fun to write and wonderful to look at. C (my first) is also fun to write, but not when you're young--not as much as Python is.
Post reply on HN