Time to do a Man's Work ??

[David B. Held]

Manfred Nowak wrote:
> Georg Wrede wrote
> 
>> picks up the intellectual intercourse with us that was so sorely
>> missed before Andrei's arrival.
> 
> I do not believe that intellectual intercourses itself are wanted from 
> the "us" you are speaking for.
> 
> Its the stardom of Andrei that is appreciated and Walters acceptance of 
> Andrei which brings Andrei in the same position which once belonged to 
> Matthew.

There's no doubt that Andrei's notoriety lends a certain amount of 
credibility to the D enterprise.  Rest assured that Andrei has not 
disappeared from the face of D, but he has decided to give up the 
newsgroup (or rather, he decided that when he felt it got too 
uncivilized for his tastes).  So, don't hold your breath waiting for him 
to come back.  He will continue to contribute to D, but in a less 
overtly visible manner.

> Walter once said, that he appreciates Andrei's academic rigor. But if 
> anybody was lacking academic rigor there were plenty of people who 
> could  put that in.
> 
> You yourself once attacked Stewart Gordon, who has a PhD, for his 
> monitoring and especially indicating some of Walters not quite 
> academically driven habits.
> 
> Many seem unable to recognize the group dynamics acting in here.

I'm not sure what Dr. Gordon's credentials are, and there is no doubt 
that the D community possesses many smart members.  What I think makes 
Andrei unique is that he not only has a strong academic background, but 
also strong industrial experience.  Whereas many language designers tend 
towards "pure" languages, sacrificing some practicality to achieve 
elegance, Andrei is not above getting his hands dirty and doing the 
practical thing to achieve a good result, while citing academic 
precedents for going down each path.  His experience with the C++ 
Committee, which is very much an industrial group, gives him an insider 
perspective on a large, mature language, while his academic work (which 
isn't all computer science-related) motivates his perspective as a 
language user (of many languages).  Finally, his position as a library 
and book author puts him in the position of receiving regular feedback 
from users, which I'm sure lends a wealth of perspectives.

That's not to say nobody else could or does have a similar level of 
experience, but I'm often surprised how talk of a new language feature 
leads Andrei to bring up prior work and academic papers.  He simply has 
an encyclopaedic knowledge of PL design, which is much of why Walter 
appreciates his input.  Also, unlike many pure academics, Andrei is 
interested in solving the problems of real users, rather than merely 
theoretically interesting problems.  He is especially interested in the 
problems of that special user which is himself.  This puts him in a 
different position than someone like Walter, who thinks of the language 
primarily as its designer; and I think it's a very useful balance to 
have.  Thus, Andrei blends the elegance of academic rigor with advocacy 
for the user.  He never recommends a feature that he thinks will be hard 
to use (MC++D notwithstanding).

Perhaps there is a small element of personality cult involved, and I 
think Andrei is popular partly because he is a personable and 
entertaining guy at times.  He has strong views on many topics and 
defends those views vigorously.  Most people appreciate confidence 
backed with rigor.  Of course, when people disagree, there is chance for 
conflict; and some conflicts are purely matters of personality, no 
doubt.  However, I think there are legitimate reasons for Walter to 
carefully consider Andrei's input; and if it makes you feel any better, 
I've never seen Andrei offer anybody Kool-Aid.

Dave