Saša Jurić is fantastic at condensing lots of information in a 1 hour talk without losing the audience, he gave another great talk this year called Parsing from first principles (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xNzoerDljjo).
“Why isn’t functional programming the norm?” by Richard Feldman. Spoiler: not on the basis of merits. https://youtu.be/QyJZzq0v7Z4
“React to the future” by Jordan Walke. Why ReasonML is a logical extension of ReactJS’ programming paradigm. https://youtu.be/5fG_lyNuEAw
“Typing the untyped: soundness in gradual type systems” by Ben Weissmann. The trade offs that various gradual type systems make based on their language constraints. https://youtu.be/uJHD2xyv7xo
“Let’s program like it’s 1999” by Lee Byron. How the mutual feedback loop of abstraction, syntax and mental model drives the evolution of web technologies. https://youtu.be/vG8WpLr6y_U
Maybe I'm missing something but I'm more than halfway through the "Why isn't functional programming the norm?" and it just seems to be a kind of haphazard recollection of programming language history. A lot of which isn't what I'd call entirely correct. Python's killer app was arguably first CGI scripts then data science. Java succeeded due to offering GC in a non scripting language, the JVM and possibly lots of marketing. PHP is having a mild renaissance with Laravel (not that I'd advocate for PHP, but people do seem to love Laravel).
There was quite a bit of time in between the invention of implementation inheritance and the whole "prefer composition to inheritance". It's quite possible OOP became popular due to implementation inheritance then realized it was dumb.
This info is still useful, but what I'd really love from a talk with that title is an analysis of functional programming languages and how they each missed the boat through either syntax, lack of tooling, or purity. And compare it to functional-ish languages like Rust, JavaScript, Swift and Kotlin. Then chart a way forward for function programming language adoption. Maybe that happens at the end of the talk.
> seems to be a kind of haphazard recollection of programming language history
Agree. The talk is very thin on the real differences between OOP and functional languages.
This old comment [0] points out that functional languages tend to make it far harder to reason about low-level details, for instance.
Personally I think it's more fundamental, and isn't about any such technical limitations. People have a strong intuition for time, which is emphasised in imperative languages (including OOP), which have the semicolon operator or an implicit equivalent. The concepts at play in the fundamentals of Haskell are simply harder, and 'more mathematical', than the sequenced mutation-based statements of imperative/OOP languages.
To put that more provocatively: does anyone doubt that the average Haskell programmer is smarter than the average JavaScript programmer? I'm not convinced this is just because only the curious bother to learn Haskell.
A complete digress, but OOPS still shines in the domain of GUI widgets programming where there are a limited number of interfaces and a huge number of widgets (implementations) working with that interface. FP works conversely, on a limited data and a huge set of functions. Maybe in the context of now with limited gui programming, FL is more suitable?
Here's the secret agent ad by Sun which Feldman mentions [1]. These Sun ads are really quite entertaining and the production values have had to been through the roof at the time [2][3][4].
This talk is very good. It's one of the few talks that I've overheard classmates talk about. It not only asks a question a lot of people exposed to functional programming at university asks, but also answers it in a way where you learn more about the world of programming and programming languages than you expected.
A bunch of the best talks of the year may still be to come when 36C3 takes place from the 27th to 30th. The schedule is already up [1]. Speakers include David Graeber, Edward Snowden, Daniel J. Bernstein, Moxie Marlinspike, and over a hundred others.
All talks will be livestreamed (and usually become available for download one day later) at [2].
WASM interpreter from scratch is great not only because "omg livecoding interpreter from scratch", but also it is a lot of inspiration for hacking and exploring things.
Just watched this video. What a quality live coding: fast and low on bugs. Learned about stack based machines from very basics. Would upvote more if I could.
Not a talk from 2019, but discovered it this year: "1177 BC, the year civilization collapsed (Eric Cline, PhD)" https://youtu.be/bRcu-ysocX4
Excellent informative and hilarious talk about his (at-the-time) new scientific hypothesis to explain the end of the Bronze Age ca. 1200 BC.
Multiple civilizations collapsed within a few decades of each other with the ability to read, write and make high buildings being lost all across the Eastern Mediterranean simultaneously. The Bronze Age is magical and interesting of itself, the talk gives a great introduction as to why we know much more about it than we think.. definitely recommended.
Brendan presents news tools and new flows that can be used to analyse performance bottlenecks.
He get you in the demo and you stay to receive more and more information. It seems to be a talk that he has been improving over the years. Totally worth your time seen it.
Same here. I started watching because I misinterpreted the title and stayed for the wow effect :)
Also, after seeing what kind of magic he can do with the right representation, I wondered how many "business domain" models I know could be expressed with models that "click" in the same way (i.e. are expressed by simple concepts and compose as well).
I feel as if many of us often give up way too early in the search for good models for our data. Myself included, of course.
Shameless plug since I'm the speaker. The reason I'm posting this in "best talks of 2019" is not because I think it was a good talk (my ego isn't that big yet) but because I think very few talks exist on the subject of Behavioral Programming, and it's a subject I'm hoping can get more attention.
I just watched [2]. Can thoroughly recommend, very watchable presenter & I feel like although I had no idea what he was doing half the time it was very cool. Technological Magic!
My favorite talk of this year is Raymond Hettinger talking about mental gymnastics which helps you to structure your problems into ones that which you can solve.
The mental game of Python: youtu.be/UANN2Eu6ZnM
Caltech Guest Lecture: Quantum supremacy using a programmable superconducting processor - Professor John Martinis, Chief Scientist Google Quantum Computing Division
Why I thought it was cool: Gives a good overview of Async implementations without getting too deep in the weeds. Talks about "greenthreads" in other languages vs a zero-cost abstraction in Rust.
I purchased his book, Crashed: How a Decade of Financial Crises Changed the World without really knowing much about it (or him) and found it to be a great, semi-technical story about the financial crisis (and its politics) from the global perspective.
Ask the Ecosystem: Lessons from 200+ FOSS Applications - Mahmoud Hashemi
Basically made an awesome list of applications written in Python(now is 380+), then answered the frequently asked questions by the community about how to develops applications using Python.
Most interesting development for me in 2019 were the ongoing political realignments - the right no longer sees the free market as compatible with their social values.
Bruce Sterling has been around in the intersection of art and technology since the dawn of the internet. His gothic, villain, medival high tech scifi world are a hilarious inspiration.
Richard Wolf’s Global Economic Update from November 2019 changed how I perceive the US tax system, US political candidates and their proposals on how to fund various solutions. He also speaks about political parties and their purpose in the context of capitalism, and separately, libertarianism.
Lastly, covers the US/China “trade war”.
Fascinating and very well structured talk, revealing the hidden (to me) forces behind economic structures and decisions.
For those who were curious, this is a lecture by Richard Wolff, who Wikipedia describes as an “american Marxist economist”
His recent Twitter posts suggest that economic inequality in the US can be achieved through taxing the rich, which while not an original thought, seems sensible.
video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JvBT4XBdoUE
HN discussion: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20942767
Preventing the Collapse of Civilization, by Jonathan Blow
video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pW-SOdj4Kkk
HN discussion: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19945452