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digitalmars.D.announce - Walter on his experience as a dev, on running an open source project

reply deadalnix <deadalnix gmail.com> writes:
https://www.reddit.com/r/programming/comments/41sdzj/walter_bright_on_being_a_developer_running_an/
Jan 19 2016
next sibling parent reply Joakim <dlang joakim.fea.st> writes:
On Wednesday, 20 January 2016 at 03:13:38 UTC, deadalnix wrote:

 https://www.reddit.com/r/programming/comments/41sdzj/walter_bright_on_being_a_developer_running_an/


Thanks for the link, just watched all four parts.  I'm not sure 
Walter is the right speaker for those kids, like having Yoda 
lecture a bunch of young padewan.  His half-float example was 
likely too low-level for that audience, better to show something 
you'd do in ruby or python and explain how it'd run _much_ faster 
in D, while not much more difficult to write.
Jan 20 2016
parent reply Rikki Cattermole <alphaglosined gmail.com> writes:
On 20/01/16 11:58 PM, Joakim wrote:

 On Wednesday, 20 January 2016 at 03:13:38 UTC, deadalnix wrote:

 https://www.reddit.com/r/programming/comments/41sdzj/walter_bright_on_being_a_developer_running_an/


 Thanks for the link, just watched all four parts.  I'm not sure Walter
 is the right speaker for those kids, like having Yoda lecture a bunch of
 young padewan.  His half-float example was likely too low-level for that
 audience, better to show something you'd do in ruby or python and
 explain how it'd run _much_ faster in D, while not much more difficult
 to write.


 From what Walter said, they all knew c. So not really too low level for 
them.
Jan 20 2016
next sibling parent reply epsilomish <epsilomish nowhere.it> writes:
On Wednesday, 20 January 2016 at 11:07:16 UTC, Rikki Cattermole 
wrote:

 On 20/01/16 11:58 PM, Joakim wrote:

 On Wednesday, 20 January 2016 at 03:13:38 UTC, deadalnix wrote:

 https://www.reddit.com/r/programming/comments/41sdzj/walter_bright_on_being_a_developer_running_an/


 Thanks for the link, just watched all four parts.  I'm not 
 sure Walter
 is the right speaker for those kids, like having Yoda lecture 
 a bunch of
 young padewan.  His half-float example was likely too 
 low-level for that
 audience, better to show something you'd do in ruby or python 
 and
 explain how it'd run _much_ faster in D, while not much more 
 difficult
 to write.


 From what Walter said, they all knew c. So not really too low 
 level for them.


But half-float uses the 'alias this' trick, furthemore on a 
getter function. Without a bit of D knowledge you can't get how 
it's subtle.
Jan 20 2016
parent reply Rikki Cattermole <alphaglosined gmail.com> writes:
On 21/01/16 12:22 AM, epsilomish wrote:

 On Wednesday, 20 January 2016 at 11:07:16 UTC, Rikki Cattermole wrote:

 On 20/01/16 11:58 PM, Joakim wrote:

 On Wednesday, 20 January 2016 at 03:13:38 UTC, deadalnix wrote:

 https://www.reddit.com/r/programming/comments/41sdzj/walter_bright_on_being_a_developer_running_an/


 Thanks for the link, just watched all four parts.  I'm not sure Walter
 is the right speaker for those kids, like having Yoda lecture a bunch of
 young padewan.  His half-float example was likely too low-level for that
 audience, better to show something you'd do in ruby or python and
 explain how it'd run _much_ faster in D, while not much more difficult
 to write.


 From what Walter said, they all knew c. So not really too low level
 for them.


 But half-float uses the 'alias this' trick, furthemore on a getter
 function. Without a bit of D knowledge you can't get how it's subtle.


Yeah I agree, alias this was definitely too much for them.
But half float wasn't an issue IMO.
Jan 20 2016
parent reply epsilomish <epsilomish nowhere.it> writes:
On Wednesday, 20 January 2016 at 11:24:11 UTC, Rikki Cattermole 
wrote:

 On 21/01/16 12:22 AM, epsilomish wrote:

 On Wednesday, 20 January 2016 at 11:07:16 UTC, Rikki 
 Cattermole wrote:

 On 20/01/16 11:58 PM, Joakim wrote:

 On Wednesday, 20 January 2016 at 03:13:38 UTC, deadalnix 
 wrote:

 https://www.reddit.com/r/programming/comments/41sdzj/walter_bright_on_being_a_developer_running_an/


 Thanks for the link, just watched all four parts.  I'm not 
 sure Walter
 is the right speaker for those kids, like having Yoda 
 lecture a bunch of
 young padewan.  His half-float example was likely too 
 low-level for that
 audience, better to show something you'd do in ruby or 
 python and
 explain how it'd run _much_ faster in D, while not much more 
 difficult
 to write.


 From what Walter said, they all knew c. So not really too low 
 level
 for them.


 But half-float uses the 'alias this' trick, furthemore on a 
 getter
 function. Without a bit of D knowledge you can't get how it's 
 subtle.


 Yeah I agree, alias this was definitely too much for them.
 But half float wasn't an issue IMO.


Actually, the 'alias this' is probably not that much a problem. 
In their shoes I would even ask myself: mmh what is this obscure 
feature, let's have a deeper look to D...Anyway the technical 
part of the talk is small, there is the thing about lexical D 
t_h_i_n_g_s, the octal template and half-floats...It globally 
works.
Jan 20 2016
parent reply Walter Bright <newshound2 digitalmars.com> writes:
On 1/20/2016 12:41 PM, epsilomish wrote:

 Actually, the 'alias this' is probably not that much a problem. In their shoes
I
 would even ask myself: mmh what is this obscure feature, let's have a deeper
 look to D...Anyway the technical part of the talk is small, there is the thing
 about lexical D t_h_i_n_g_s, the octal template and half-floats...It globally
 works.


I wanted a mix of trivial and advanced stuff, so there was something for
everyone.
Jan 20 2016
parent epsilomish <epsilomish nowhere.it> writes:
On Wednesday, 20 January 2016 at 21:38:55 UTC, Walter Bright 
wrote:

 On 1/20/2016 12:41 PM, epsilomish wrote:

 Actually, the 'alias this' is probably not that much a 
 problem. In their shoes I
 would even ask myself: mmh what is this obscure feature, let's 
 have a deeper
 look to D...Anyway the technical part of the talk is small, 
 there is the thing
 about lexical D t_h_i_n_g_s, the octal template and 
 half-floats...It globally
 works.


 I wanted a mix of trivial and advanced stuff, so there was 
 something for everyone.


That's well reflected, despite of my first comment.

One thing I'd like to say in reaction the first part: noise and 
fan.
Personally I can't live without noise anymore. I used to be 
obsessional about silence but now I think it's very relaxing to 
have a fan turning again and again, by fan I mean:

http://www.cinni.com.au/images/pedestalFans.jpg

They produce a LF vibe which is very relaxing. For example now, 
here, where I live:

https://www.google.fr/maps/ 48.5591464,7.7793422,9z?hl=fr

It's 21.2 F° outside, but I still have the good vibes from the 
low frequency generator in my computer room. a steady purr.
Jan 20 2016
prev sibling parent reply thedeemon <dlang thedeemon.com> writes:
On Wednesday, 20 January 2016 at 11:07:16 UTC, Rikki Cattermole 
wrote:

 From what Walter said, they all knew c. So not really too low 
 level for them.


To me it looked like:
Walter: "You all write in C, right?"
Audience silent with expression on their faces "What is C? We've 
only heard about JavaScript".
;)
Jan 20 2016
parent reply deadalnix <deadalnix gmail.com> writes:
On Thursday, 21 January 2016 at 05:14:03 UTC, thedeemon wrote:

 On Wednesday, 20 January 2016 at 11:07:16 UTC, Rikki Cattermole 
 wrote:

 From what Walter said, they all knew c. So not really too low 
 level for them.


 To me it looked like:
 Walter: "You all write in C, right?"
 Audience silent with expression on their faces "What is C? 
 We've only heard about JavaScript".
 ;)


Isn't C that language that compiles to javascript ?
Jan 21 2016
parent Jacob Carlborg <doob me.com> writes:
On 2016-01-21 11:01, deadalnix wrote:

 On Thursday, 21 January 2016 at 05:14:03 UTC, thedeemon wrote:

 On Wednesday, 20 January 2016 at 11:07:16 UTC, Rikki Cattermole wrote:

 From what Walter said, they all knew c. So not really too low level
 for them.


 To me it looked like:
 Walter: "You all write in C, right?"
 Audience silent with expression on their faces "What is C? We've only
 heard about JavaScript".
 ;)


 Isn't C that language that compiles to javascript ?


No, it compiles to CoffeeScript which then compiles to JavaScript.

-- 
/Jacob Carlborg
Jan 21 2016
prev sibling next sibling parent reply burjui <bytefu gmail.com> writes:
On Wednesday, 20 January 2016 at 03:13:38 UTC, deadalnix wrote:

 https://www.reddit.com/r/programming/comments/41sdzj/walter_bright_on_being_a_developer_running_an/


I also prefer to work at night, mainly because of silence. A 
simple test: listen to a song in your headphones at day, then 
listen to it on the same volume level at night. Recently I almost 
stopped listening to music (even ambient) while I write code, 
because it turns out I do less mistakes and overlook things not 
so often, when I code in silence. It makes coding less 
entertaining, but more productive.
Jan 21 2016
parent Walter Bright <newshound2 digitalmars.com> writes:
On 1/21/2016 5:06 AM, burjui wrote:

 Recently I almost stopped listening to music (even ambient) while I
 write code, because it turns out I do less mistakes and overlook things not so
 often, when I code in silence. It makes coding less entertaining, but more
 productive.


The trick is to turn the volume down so the music is barely perceptible.
Jan 21 2016
prev sibling parent Abdulhaq <alynch4047 gmail.com> writes:
On Wednesday, 20 January 2016 at 03:13:38 UTC, deadalnix wrote:

 https://www.reddit.com/r/programming/comments/41sdzj/walter_bright_on_being_a_developer_running_an/


I really enjoyed this talk, it's very interesting to see how 
Walter works and to compare it with our own personal preferences.

Walter talks about how to manage the ebb and flow of motivation 
when working on a long term project. His suggestion of always 
doing some small bit of work on it on a daily basis was new to me 
and seems like a great idea. Personally I also like to rotate 
what I work on within the project, and will switch to something 
new and interesting when the everyday parts get boring. I'm 
pretty sure Walter also does this to maintain his own motivation, 
and this explains why he doesn't always work on what seems most 
important in the D world, but instead whatever is required to 
keep his own excitement for the project alive. A recent example 
is when he worked on optimising DMD instead of various other more 
mundane but arguably important tasks. The fact is, as developers 
we sometimes have to nourish our motivation even at the expense 
of delaying some of the more important but less rewarding work.
Jan 23 2016