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Alan Kay has agreed to do an AMA today

1401 points alankay | 1 comments | 20 Jun 16 18:04 UTC | HN request time: 0s | source

This request originated via recent discussions on HN, and the forming of HARC! at YC Research. I'll be around for most of the day today (though the early evening).
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16bytes ◴[20 Jun 16 18:40 UTC] No.11940211[source]▶
Hi Alan,

I'm preparing a presentation on how to build a mental model of computing by learning different computer languages. It would be great to include some of your feedback.

* What programming language maps most closely to the way that you think?

* What concept would you reify into a popular language such that it would more closely fit that mapping?

* What one existing reified language feature do you find impacts the way you write code the most, especially even in languages where it is not available?

replies(1): >>11940252 #
alankay1 ◴[20 Jun 16 18:44 UTC] No.11940252[source]▶
I think I'd ask "What programming language design would help us think a lot better than we do now (we are currently terrible!)

Certainly, in this day and age, the lack of safe meta-definition is pretty much shocking.

replies(2): >>11940453 #>>11941568 #
dang ◴[20 Jun 16 19:06 UTC] No.11940453[source]▶
Could you give an example of what you mean by "safe meta-definition"? I'd like to understand this better.
replies(3): >>11940546 #>>11940648 #>>11941131 #
cconroy ◴[20 Jun 16 19:16 UTC] No.11940546{3}[source]▶
Me too. But if he doesn't answer it he may mean how languages don't have a well designed meta protocol. See the one they built for CLOS in that good book.
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1. cconroy ◴[20 Jun 16 19:28 UTC] No.11940664{4}[source]▶
This reminded me of an interesting dream I had. I dreamt I created a nice language with a meta protocol. In working with the language and using this protocol I changed the language into a different language which gave me insights on changing that language -- all through meta protocols. I woke up having a distinct feeling of what is means to not be plodding around in a Turing tarpit.