I admire Fabrice Bellard. He is almost certainly a better overall programmer • Hacker News Board

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

#291

Post by bravetraveler » Tue, Jun 16, 2026, 2:34 PM UTC

Barbing wrote: post #288

bravetraveler wrote: post #283

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sure, I didn't restrict to rule breaking. As I already said, it serves the function of compressing the conversation others complained about.

Downvotes may offer that function too, I think. Thought the flag was “hey this guy can’t call me a doodoohead with no ‘J/K’ at the end!”, rule break like rudeness or spam or slop Guess I better read the rules Edit: IDK why I can’t always downvote. Sometimes see it on a comment’s permalink page. Guessing some karma factors at play (lifetime upvotes received per user, can’t downvote more senior users maybe)

> Downvotes may offer that function too, I think.

Not quite as effectively, but sure. De-ranked consumption of vertical space instead of complete compression. Anyway, many tools one may choose. Not mutually exclusive or expensive.

> Guess I better read the rules

I'm sure someone will link them for us [again, vertical space!]. You're fine, however. Not super familiar with the heuristics, but I do know... downvoting gets blocked once you reply, do it first.

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

#292

Post by [deleted] » Tue, Jun 16, 2026, 2:35 PM UTC

chollida1 wrote: post #289

andai wrote: post #249

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My guess would be the hueristic is "I want to do simple thing, why is it so hard?" (Modern computing has an overabundance of "DX tarpits".) Which is funny because, everyone has that experience, right? But then approximately nobody proceeds to do something about it. (Including most people who have the skills to make a difference!) Like, that's surprisingly mundane, and surprisingly actionable. --- If we distil it into…

> "DX tarpits" Google shows no results for this term so i'm guessing its your own short hand for something hard?

[deleted]

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

#293

Post by copperx » Tue, Jun 16, 2026, 2:36 PM UTC

FartyMcFarter wrote: post #156

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?

Programmers are notoriously nitpicky, and avoid making absolute statements in most cases (wait, I'm doing it too!). This is because we've been trained to be humble by the machines we work with. Computers expose a lot of our mistakes, and over time they remove any illusion that we can be quickly confident about things. I would take the qualifiers in his post as an indication of his general disinclination towards makin…

Sure, but what are the consequences of not being accurate in this case? praising someone undeservedly? Saying someone is better at something than you?

That's unacceptable! Bring out the surgically precise praise!

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

#294

Post by blanched » Tue, Jun 16, 2026, 2:37 PM UTC

chollida1 wrote: post #289

andai wrote: post #249

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My guess would be the hueristic is "I want to do simple thing, why is it so hard?" (Modern computing has an overabundance of "DX tarpits".) Which is funny because, everyone has that experience, right? But then approximately nobody proceeds to do something about it. (Including most people who have the skills to make a difference!) Like, that's surprisingly mundane, and surprisingly actionable. --- If we distil it into…

> "DX tarpits" Google shows no results for this term so i'm guessing its your own short hand for something hard?

Potentially a play on https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turing_tarpit

(DX is developer experience, tarpit is used idiomatically to mean “slow/difficult thing”)

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

#295

Post by copperx » Tue, Jun 16, 2026, 2:38 PM UTC

account42 wrote: post #119

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?

It's just a tweet, no need to over-analyze everything.

Carmack is the one over analyzing the praise he hands out.

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

#296

Post by Georgelemental » Tue, Jun 16, 2026, 2:39 PM UTC

redlewel wrote: post #287

My jaw dropped when I read this guy wrote ffmpeg AND QEMU!!? Thats insane levels of talent and capability. I remember looking through the source for QEMU and it appeared monstrous in its scale. Dude is a legend, no wonder Carmack is complimenting him.

To be clear, while he is the original author of both those programs, both are now developed by other people and have been for many years.

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

#297

Post by rafram » Tue, Jun 16, 2026, 2:40 PM UTC

slmjkdbtl wrote: post #169

throwaway2037 wrote: post #116

For those unaware, you can find Fabrice's website here: https://bellard.org/ It has a full list of his projects.

Great programmers often also have great personal website design, everything is so clear and not one bit of redundance.

It's really not a great design. It's just nerdy in a HN way. A great website would list projects in approximate order of importance/notability, would use the tiniest bit of CSS to make the text readable on wide screens, and would have images for projects with a visual component. The only reason his site is appealing is because you already know who he is.

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

#298

Post by quietbritishjim » Tue, Jun 16, 2026, 2:43 PM UTC

chollida1 wrote: post #289

andai wrote: post #249

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My guess would be the hueristic is "I want to do simple thing, why is it so hard?" (Modern computing has an overabundance of "DX tarpits".) Which is funny because, everyone has that experience, right? But then approximately nobody proceeds to do something about it. (Including most people who have the skills to make a difference!) Like, that's surprisingly mundane, and surprisingly actionable. --- If we distil it into…

> "DX tarpits" Google shows no results for this term so i'm guessing its your own short hand for something hard?

DX is developer experience (analogous to UX for user experience).

Tarpit is often used as an analogy for anything that suddenly slows you down.

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

#299

Post by latexr » Tue, Jun 16, 2026, 2:43 PM UTC

latexr wrote: post #99

I’m asking genuinely: What’s the point of linking to Carmack’s tweet? The intellectual curiosity (what HN is ostensibly about) is all in the quoted tweet (despite it being written like an LLM trained on LinkedIn posts). Carmack isn’t really adding anything of importance or interest. Linking to him feels a bit cult of personality, as if Bellard is deserving of attention because Carmack gave some vague praise with qual…

This has gotten a ton of upvotes, then a ton of downvotes. Yet no one has yet answered the question. If you are downvoting, presumably you believe there is a point to linking to Carmack’s tweet. That it somehow adds more value than the alternative. So please explain why. Like I said before, I am asking genuinely.

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

#300

Post by taeric » Tue, Jun 16, 2026, 2:47 PM UTC

abustamam wrote: post #279

andai wrote: post #249

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My guess would be the hueristic is "I want to do simple thing, why is it so hard?" (Modern computing has an overabundance of "DX tarpits".) Which is funny because, everyone has that experience, right? But then approximately nobody proceeds to do something about it. (Including most people who have the skills to make a difference!) Like, that's surprisingly mundane, and surprisingly actionable. --- If we distil it into…

As an extension to your last point, here in the US people love complaining about politics (on both sides) but very few people (including me!) take the time to come up with solutions and go to town halls, or write to senators apart from the automated message that makes you feel like you did a thing, or even run for office. Of course, all of those are hard! And I think that speaks to the modern tarpits. No one set out…

A big hidden in plain site facet of this, is few are willing to put forth the work within the existing system.

That is, going to town halls, writing senators, and running for office are all standard parts of the system people are complaining about. And they are offering the complaints, largely, as stand in complaints for whole hosts of problems that they actually think are there.

So, agreed, few are willing to ignore their general nebulous complaints and get into the system to work with it. They dream that there will be some magic shift of everything away from their complaints.

My only twist is I think this is ok, as long as people stay grounded in the rest of their life. It is perfectly fine to dream. Is mostly fine to complain. No need to dirty the water where people are getting things done, though.