The creators of Python, Java, TypeScript and SmallTalk will make a joint appearance for charity

2023-09-01 09:00:00

The creators of four programming languages ​​will appear together on stage for a historic conversation on September 19.

– Adele Goldberg — Smalltalk
– Guido Van Rossum — Python
– Anders Hejlsberg — Turbo Pascal, C#, TypeScript
– James Gosling — Java

The ad describes him as ” a conversation about programming language design “.The benefit brings together this unique group of computing pioneers, unlike any event held before. These great minds come together for what is sure to be a fantastic evening of discussion as the panel delves into the past and future of the creation of programming languages.

It’s a fundraiser for two groups. NumFOCUS is a non-profit charity that sponsors almost all the major tools in the Python data science stack (including jupyter, numpy, pandas, and matplotlib), and is also the group behind the PyData conferences about open source data tools. And the Last Mile Education Fund offers financial support to low-income and underrepresented students. Billed as the “inaugural charity event” for PyData Seattle.

This it happened once before in 2019 , when Puget Sound Programming Python hosted a four-way discussion with Python creator Guido van Rossum, Java creator James Gosling, Perl creator Larry Wall, and Anders Hejlsberg (Turbo Pascal, C#, TypeScript). they helda 90 minute discussion about “the design of language, the universe and everything” as a benefit for CSforALL (a group that promotes computer science classes in all grades). During that discussion, Gosling shared how Java “started as sort of ‘Making C better’ and it got out of hand. The rest of the project really ended up just providing the context.” And Anders Hejlsberg told the audience that TypeScript was inspired by massive “write-only” JavaScript codebases.

In its discussion on typing variablesand its use in the IDE, Gosling mocked what he called the “real men use vi” mentality, leading to a lively back and forth. Perl’s Larry Wall later recognized the importance of types and the careful consideration he took in implementing them for Perl 6, but also shared his unique perspective as a longtime programming language designer. “I think IDEs make language developers lazy.”

By the end of the event, everyone agreed that the most rewarding part of language design was the people: the excitement, the gratitude, and seeing that community helping others in their community.