←back to thread

Alan Kay has agreed to do an AMA today

1401 points alankay | 3 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).
Show context
syngrog66 ◴[20 Jun 16 21:11 UTC] No.11941620[source]▶
hi Alan!

Q: I've always been a big fan both of text console accessible UI's like CLI's and REPL's as well as of GUI's. In my mind they each clearly have a different mix of strengths and weaknesses. One way a user might have a bit of the "best of both worlds" potentially is an app or client featuring a hybrid input design where all 3 of these modes are available for the user to drive. Any thoughts on that?

I'm writing a paper in my free time about some architectural ideas in this area and would love to hear your thoughts. Feel free to tell me this is a FAQ and that I should go read a particular book/paper of yours, and/or to get off your lawn. :-)

thank you!

replies(1): >>11942044 #
alankay1 ◴[20 Jun 16 22:19 UTC] No.11942044[source]▶
Smalltalk and some other languages have all three -- easy to do if the system is a "certain way".
replies(1): >>11942075 #
1. syngrog66 ◴[20 Jun 16 22:24 UTC] No.11942075[source]▶
thanks! do you mean if the underlying architecture design makes it easier?
replies(1): >>11942441 #
2. alankay1 ◴[20 Jun 16 23:30 UTC] No.11942441[source]▶
Yes ...
replies(1): >>11943483 #
3. syngrog66 ◴[21 Jun 16 04:22 UTC] No.11943483[source]▶
ok that's what I thought you meant. thank you, sir! I began to realize after I hit return it was probably a redundant question, I apologize. I get starstruck a little when dealing with people whose work I've admired for so long. each time, boom, my effective IQ probably just drops right through the floor. :-)

one of your influences on me as a software engineer has been to strive for solutions which make certain things easier, all things possible, because of architecture choices, while still allowing best-of-both-worlds modalities. eg. that which is to UI's as DSL's are to a general purpose programming language.