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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

#331

Post by [deleted] »

nixon_why69 wrote: post #326
nerdsniper wrote: post #322

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> where's your revolutionary free code that you gave to the world? I’m no Einstein. XD I wasn’t trying to minimize Bellard’s contributions! I’m in awe of them, and very grateful. If anything I was just noticing that Fabrice is a fantastic example of how much contribution those geniuses could make if they had access to even the bare minimum of education and stability. For example, if they weren’t growing up in the kil…

An Einstein or Bellard would pass the exams anyways. A schlub like me probably wouldn't, and I recognize the advantages I've had, but your quote was about Einsteins.

[deleted]

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

#332

Post by bcjdjsndon »

naasking wrote: post #270
bcjdjsndon wrote: post #197

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ffmpeg has nothing to do with the internet other than being distributed on it

Most bytes traversing the internet is video these days. Arguably, ffmpeg has processed most of that video.

Then unicode powers the internet by that same logic.

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

#333

Post by andrehacker »

Georgelemental wrote: post #296
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.

Isn't that how it is supposed to work ? Stroke of genius (over and over again) to get something working given constraints of the day followed by hundreds of engineers who will improve on the foundations, basically like Wozniak ?

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

#334

Post by rramadass »

jf wrote: post #69

Can anybody point me at any interviews of Fabrice? I've looked several times (including just now) and I can't find /anything/ - am I missing something obvious?

Biography - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46377862

My previous comment with links - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46372370

dang's links - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46379975

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

#335

Post by ex-aws-dude »

miki123211 wrote: post #185

It's interesting to me that most of Bellard's work is basically turning specs into C. His most important projects are ffmpeg (codec specs), qEmu (ISA specs), QuickJS (the EcmaScript spec), tinyC (the C spec), and his telecom company (LTE specs). I guess the pi calculations and neural network stuff are exceptions. Just to be clear, this doesn't make his work any less impressive. Highly performant codec and emulator im…

I don’t think the distinction is actually that interesting as you could call any piece of software a spec

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

#336

Post by jongjong »

21asdffdsa12 wrote: post #103
hnlmorg wrote: post #97

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think developers sometimes get too obsessed with code quality thinking that smarter code makes them a better developer. In fact I’ve seen developers fall into the trap of mistaking their code as the product and thus spend so much time beautifying it that that fail to ever release anything. Then you have the other end of the spectrum where people are too focused on hacking stuff together that the end result is unmai…

But the code quality is speed. And reach. You can not advance, unless you can read the code, you can understand the model, you can not scale beyond a certain point. The beauty of the architecture is the ability to build a spaceship compared to a train of kerosene tankers. Physically similar, but in capability radical different. I find this very scary. Somebody unable to perceive capabilities and tech-debt. If you can…

I agree with this for complex problems which cannot be vibe coded with AI. So definitely it's an essential skill for any human engineer.

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

#337

Post by jongjong »

gaigalas wrote: post #38
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.

Yeah. They've had their time.

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

#338

Post by sph »

f17428d27584 wrote: post #323
coldtea wrote: post #102

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Parent knows. He makes an analogy, not an absolute equivalence.

Right, but the analogy is very clearly about someone trying to hide / protect their identity, which doesn’t apply in this case. Perhaps it was trying to stretch it to “unknown figure”, saying this programmer is mysterious, even though it was not by choice but circumstance: fame has eluded him. (Not implying it’s desired). But on that reading, I would still say the metaphor fails: it’s not effective at conveying this…

> unnecessary Satoshi name drop

"Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord in vain". I apologise.

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

#339

Post by ldargin »

jdw64 wrote: post #60

How on earth were those people able to create such amazing things? Will I ever be able to create something that brilliant someday? What should I even make? I have so many more tools than they did, even LLMs. Where can I learn the ideas and skills they had?

Don't use LLMs except for the most menial things. Get as much practice in creating various things. Study expert-level books on related subjects. Foster your creativity in other areas too (i.e. writing, drawing, music). Don't pass up the chance to work with veteran developers; be ready for that opportunity when it comes.

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

#340

Post by jimbokun »

andai wrote: post #246

Reading the list of Bellard's contributions, what strikes me is not the raw ability (although certainly there is that too!) but "damn, he knows how to pick 'em!" He keeps picking stuff to work on that ends up being insanely useful to a massive number of people. That seems somehow even more remarkable than the technical ability. Deciding what to work on might be the most important question in life.

These are your 10x programmers.

Maybe 100x or more in Bertrand’s case.

It’s not about putting in 19 hour days or spitting out more lines of code or PRs or whatever.

It’s coming up with elegant solutions with broad impact that no one else even considered.

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