Interview: Larry Wall • Hacker News Board

Re: Interview: Larry Wall

#21

Post by koenigdavidmj » Tue, Jul 14, 2015, 10:44 PM UTC

hinkley wrote: post #17

cpach wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well he attended UC Berkeley in the 1970s, so it’s safe to assume that he has had lots of exposure to hippie culture. There are actually quite strong connections between computer nerds and the counterculture of the 60s/70s. If you’re curious I recommend the following books: # What the Dormouse Said: How the Sixties Counterculture Shaped the Personal Computer Industry / John Markoff. A great book with many fascinating…

"Two things came out of Berkeley: LSD and Unix. We do not believe this to be a coincidence."

LSD and BSD.

Re: Interview: Larry Wall

#22

Post by amagumori » Tue, Jul 14, 2015, 10:49 PM UTC

i like the recursive sentence "you could have something that you think of as a noun, but you can verb it"

Re: Interview: Larry Wall

#23

Post by logicallee » Tue, Jul 14, 2015, 10:54 PM UTC

I had to check the year on the article - "He’s the creator of Perl, a programming language that’s widely regarded as the glue holding the internet together" was arguably true in 1999 - 16 years ago.

Re: Interview: Larry Wall

#24

Post by mempko » Tue, Jul 14, 2015, 10:57 PM UTC

I started learning perl 6 to prototype creating a DSL. Holy fucking shit perl grammars and actions are cool.

Re: Interview: Larry Wall

#25

Post by spenczar5 » Tue, Jul 14, 2015, 10:57 PM UTC

> Up until now, the Python community has done a much better job of getting into the lower levels of education than we have. We’d like to do something in that space too, and that’s partly why we have the butterfly logo, because it’s going to be appealing to seven year old girls!

Heh, I can't tell whether or not he's kidding.

Re: Interview: Larry Wall

#26

Post by eli » Tue, Jul 14, 2015, 10:58 PM UTC

logicallee wrote: post #23

I had to check the year on the article - "He’s the creator of Perl, a programming language that’s widely regarded as the glue holding the internet together " was arguably true in 1999 - 16 years ago.

I get what you're saying, but if Perl magically stopped running today I think there's a legit chance the Internet would cease functioning.

Re: Interview: Larry Wall

#27

Post by knarz » Tue, Jul 14, 2015, 10:58 PM UTC

melling wrote: post #2

This question was submitted 7 hours ago and appears on the front page with 8 points. There must be a way to play with the ranking algorithm.

There is probably a mod on CPAN to gamble HN ratings. :)

Re: Interview: Larry Wall

#28

Post by tomphoolery » Tue, Jul 14, 2015, 11:06 PM UTC

I'm such a fan of how Larry Wall speaks and writes, it's filled with a million little tangents that are stories of their own, but everything relates to the same thing of course. His BigThink videos are entertaining and enlightening. I've always respected Larry, even though Perl was sort-of "before my time" and I never got to write much in his language. But the fact that I mostly have written in languages (for server-side web development) that have been influenced by Perl makes me feel like I understand what he was going for.

Re: Interview: Larry Wall

#29

Post by mlitchard » Tue, Jul 14, 2015, 11:11 PM UTC

amagumori wrote: post #22

i like the recursive sentence "you could have something that you think of as a noun, but you can verb it"

I'm a bear of very little brain, could you explain the recursive properties of this sentence? I don't see them.

Re: Interview: Larry Wall

#30

Post by idlewords » Tue, Jul 14, 2015, 11:14 PM UTC

mlitchard wrote: post #29

amagumori wrote: post #22

i like the recursive sentence "you could have something that you think of as a noun, but you can verb it"

I'm a bear of very little brain, could you explain the recursive properties of this sentence? I don't see them.

He uses the noun 'verb' as a verb, demonstrating the process within the explanation itself.