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blairconrad's review against another edition
3.0
Not a bad set of interviews with language creators. As you might expect with a collection of this sort, some interviews were better than others. And YMMV, depending on your tastes and familiarity with the various languages. Nearly no code was included, so it's accessible to any programmer type, even if they don't know all of the languages (although I found that my attention wandered for most of the interviews with creators whose languages I didn't know).
mjfmjfmjf's review against another edition
1.0
This book was unreadable. I quite liked Design and Evolution of C++ by Stroustrup. And I've liked the various other interview/survey the greats of software - but not this one. The questions were dumb, the answers uninteresting. There weren't enough details. Perhaps it gets better later - but 100 pages in - C++, Python, APL, Forth, BASIC - I think I've got enough of a feel for it. Though Forth still looks cool. 1 of 5.
einarwh's review against another edition
5.0
This is a wonderful book - I wish there were more like it. The author does a brilliant job of going pretty deep with each of the subjects. This is reflected in how clearly the personality of each "mastermind" shines through - in some cases revealing almost hurtful arrogance, in others a deep respect for the work of others. I found it to be a very entertaining and educational read.
d6y's review against another edition
3.0
More enjoyable than I expected. That may sound like faint praise, but after having this book sitting on my shelf for a couple of years I simply decided I wasn't interested in the history and motivations of language designers. But I started flicking though, and conversations about language adoption, attitudes to change and marketing issues were illuminating.
afuerstenau's review against another edition
1.0
I read only the first three or four interviews. It was kind of interesting to read about the programming languages I use or I had used in the past but the majority was totally boring for me.
If you want to dig a little bit into several programming languages I recommend "Seven languages in seven weeks. I think an interview part would fit to this book much better but a book of pure interviews was just boring over time.
An audio version of the book with the voice of the real visionaries might be better.
If you want to dig a little bit into several programming languages I recommend "Seven languages in seven weeks. I think an interview part would fit to this book much better but a book of pure interviews was just boring over time.
An audio version of the book with the voice of the real visionaries might be better.
lucapette's review against another edition
2.0
Not one star because of the APL interview which is really enjoyable and because of one interesting aspect: the predictions of the language designers. The book is almost ten years old now so it's interesting to see language designers saying "X is the future of programming" (Hint: they're mostly wrong)
Here are the notes I took while reading it:
The first interviews (c++, python) are really bad. The questions aren't interesting, the answers are sexist (programmers are always "he" in this book, and the authors could use the singular they, c'mon it's time to grow up a little.). Some answers are *really* ugly: "he is/is not a real programmer". This culture must die and seeing a book fostering it is pretty upsetting.
I did like the AWK interview a bit. There are interesting cues about learning and how to use teaching for your own learning.
Not sure I can recommend a 2-star book, but I guess one may be curious about one language or the other. Surely, I'm not reading it again.
Here are the notes I took while reading it:
The first interviews (c++, python) are really bad. The questions aren't interesting, the answers are sexist (programmers are always "he" in this book, and the authors could use the singular they, c'mon it's time to grow up a little.). Some answers are *really* ugly: "he is/is not a real programmer". This culture must die and seeing a book fostering it is pretty upsetting.
I did like the AWK interview a bit. There are interesting cues about learning and how to use teaching for your own learning.
Not sure I can recommend a 2-star book, but I guess one may be curious about one language or the other. Surely, I'm not reading it again.
stevex's review against another edition
3.0
Interesting, but not especially insightful - I would have liked to see the interviewees pressed a lot harder on why they made certain design decisions in their languages
will_sargent's review
3.0
You know what would help in this book? Actual detailed technical nerding out.
I want to see hardcore geek action.
I want to see the Liskov Substitution Principle flying.
I want to feel the monads land on my face.
I want wall to wall Hindley-Milner inference debates.
But you don't get that here. These are interviews at the most general level, done for casual interest and bragging rights. The details that make programming langages interesting are the ones that can't be given in a general interview. They require context, depth and background knowledge. What's left is what's comfortable and appealing for 99% of the interested population.
Which is great, in theory. I read the whole thing and I felt like I understood most of it.
THAT WAS NOT WHAT I WANTED. Feh.
I want to see hardcore geek action.
I want to see the Liskov Substitution Principle flying.
I want to feel the monads land on my face.
I want wall to wall Hindley-Milner inference debates.
But you don't get that here. These are interviews at the most general level, done for casual interest and bragging rights. The details that make programming langages interesting are the ones that can't be given in a general interview. They require context, depth and background knowledge. What's left is what's comfortable and appealing for 99% of the interested population.
Which is great, in theory. I read the whole thing and I felt like I understood most of it.
THAT WAS NOT WHAT I WANTED. Feh.
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