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

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

twitter.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

31–40 of 488 posts

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

#31

Post by fmajid »

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…

He is also a mathematician, having invented a new algorithm for calculating the digits of pi

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

#32

Post by otabdeveloper4 »

jdsnape wrote: post #21
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.

I knew of Fabrice, and have admired him for many years…but who is DHH?

Yeah, same.

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

#33

Post by Tade0 »

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?

Presumably because "money".

Or they just don't know tech outside of SV, which is understandable, considering the rest doesn't do nearly the same amount of self-promotion and, well, they're not from SV anyway so why should SV care?

The other day there was this article: something something nerds, which assumed (almost) everyone in tech was looking up to Jobs and Wozniak.

I think I saw my first Mac in 2006 or so and only for a brief moment - it belonged to an artist the parents of my high school friend employed. The next time it was a musician. That was really the stereotype in my corner of the world at the time and using Apple devices for programming seemed like a weird idea.

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

#34

Post by anyfoo »

shevy-java wrote: post #14
evilturnip wrote: post #7

It's obvious that those that write the tools/infrastructure are less visible than those that create the end product. I don't know a single name behind the construction of the AI tensor core in Nvidia's chips but it is effectively what runs all of AI.

I think Fabrice is actually quite noticeable. His name kept on coming up again and again in the past. He is definitely not incognito as such, even if he may not be that interest in hyping up his own name either.

He's basically a rock star here. (And well deservedly so.)

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

#36

Post by Bigpet »

jdsnape wrote: post #21
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.

I knew of Fabrice, and have admired him for many years…but who is DHH?

If you did "web stuff" in the early 2000s (like 2005-2010). You'd probably know who he is. He did Ruby on Rails, a backend web framework.

But that was also very Start-up and America focussed. So if you did web dev in some other country and didn't have colleagues who were into that culture you still might've missed the name.

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

#37

Post by sph »

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. :(

Except the ‘huge and heavy set’, you’re thinking of tokyospliff here.

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

#38

Post by gaigalas »

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…

Honestly, two mythologized figures (Carmack and Bellard).

They're good (like, quite good), but as soon as their names come up people start talking about some weird expectation of what they are supposed to think rather than the actual things they did.

Somehow, that mythologizing diminishes their accomplishments.

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

#39

Post by konart »

Bigpet wrote: post #36
jdsnape wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I knew of Fabrice, and have admired him for many years…but who is DHH?

If you did "web stuff" in the early 2000s (like 2005-2010). You'd probably know who he is. He did Ruby on Rails, a backend web framework. But that was also very Start-up and America focussed. So if you did web dev in some other country and didn't have colleagues who were into that culture you still might've missed the name.

TBH the biggest difference is him being more vocal.

I'm pretty sure most of the people who did "web stuff" at the time and used twitter (key point maybe) know him simply because you'd often see his tweets. Regardless of coutry (I'm from Russia, for exampl)

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

#40

Post by manmal »

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.
Post reply on HN