‹ BackHN Continuity

Thread

Alan Kay: Shannon gave us a way of dealing with noisy channels [video]

151 points · 36 comments · behoove

  1. shevy-java · · focus · HN ↗
    It would have been kind of great to see an OOP language with Alan's design, but with a better syntax. I dislike smalltalk syntax. Barely anyone uses smalltalk today.

    Even then, we'd also have an OOP language to be really really fast. Otherwise people will just use C.

    Java itself is too verbose and has a rather boring OOP model.

    1. Rochus · · focus · HN ↗
      How about Elixir and Erlang? They do pretty much exactly what Kay preaches.

      Interestingly, the OO model that Wirth and Gutknecht implemented in the Oberon system corresponds better to Kay's message-based vision than Smalltalk-80. Wirth arrived here not by trying to emulate biology, but by trying to avoid the V-Table.

      Java implemented the Simula 67 object model, confirmed e.g. by a 2017 Gosling lecture (as did early C++ and Smalltalk-80 to a significant degree).

      1. dang · · focus · HN ↗
        > Interestingly, the OO model that Wirth and Gutknecht implemented in the Oberon system corresponds better to Kay's message-based vision than Smalltalk-80. Wirth arrived here not by trying to emulate biology, but by trying to avoid the V-Table.

        That's interesting! what did they do that corresponded better?

        1. eterps · · focus · HN ↗
          This document demonstrates that nicely IMO:

          <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;miasap.se&#x2F;obnc&#x2F;data-abstraction.html" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;miasap.se&#x2F;obnc&#x2F;data-abstraction.html

          The examples near the top use the more familiar OOP approach, while the example at the bottom uses message sending.

Open on Hacker News to reply ↗

Unofficial Hacker News client; not affiliated with Y Combinator.