Charles Simonyi

Software engineer, philanthropist, cosmonaut

[Charles Simonyi @charlessimonyi]

Code review: developer tells me what the program is doing. Me: The computer can tell me what the program is doing. You should tell me what your intentions were. How else can I tell whether the whole effort is "correct" or not?

[Charles Simonyi @charlessimonyi]

Hotp-di-nesu - "A boon which the king gives." The writing in stone is 4000 years old and we can decode it. The program is 50 years old, five millennia in tech. It is the first use of Hungarian Notation, for example on line 171, and we can decode it although a lot has changed in languages and practices since. #Hieroglyphs #NewHungarianNotation

[Charles Simonyi @charlessimonyi]

Immanuel Kant wrote in the "Critique of Practical Reason" in 1788: "Two things fill the mind with ever-increasing wonder and awe ...: the starry heavens above me and the moral law within me.”

[Charles Simonyi @charlessimonyi]

A.I. Kant now: "Two things fill the mind with ever new admiration and awe: the Digital Sky Survey above me, and the Large Language Model within me"

[Charles Simonyi @charlessimonyi]

Recalling @DougKlunder's advice:
Do not comment code, code the comments!
(Doug wrote by far the greatest portion of the first Excel in the 80's.)

[Charles Simonyi @charlessimonyi]

My group is writing great software from a great spec. But the spec was the result of the previous not-so-great software written from a not-so-great spec. Chicken and egg - it is a continuous flow. There is no first or last, there is only evolution. #WhichCameFirst

[gfodor.id @gfodor]

@charlessimonyi Maybe the world is finally ready for intentional software :)

https://t.co/Dg4zxw0y6R

[Charles Simonyi @charlessimonyi]

Confucius on the Rectification of Names: "If names are not correct, one cannot speak smoothly and reasonably...affairs cannot be managed successfully...rites and music will not be conducted... people will not know what to do." I'll be discussing #NewHungarian for names in programs.

[Charles Simonyi @charlessimonyi]

Wittgenstein quoted in the Revised Report on the ALGOL 60 language (1962): "Was sich überhaupt sagen lässt, lässt sich klar sagen; und wovon man nicht reden kann, darüber muss man schweigen." @PeterNaur @Algol @Wittgenstein

[Charles Simonyi @charlessimonyi]

@jstpwalsh What a great point! I had this explained to me before by Mark Lehner of AERA, but did not make the connection. Thanks.

[Charles Simonyi @charlessimonyi]

Kirkegaard: "Life can only be understood backwards; but it must be lived forwards" Programs are similar, often we write them backwards, starting with the result and tracing back what we need to do to get there. #Kirkegaard #SoftwareEngineering

[Charles Simonyi @charlessimonyi]

Thanks Bill, for recalling the exciting times in 1980 with Graphical User Interfaces! As you said, AI is going to be even bigger, and it is a privilege for us to experience it.
https://t.co/bi6TUu4VLL

[Charles Simonyi @charlessimonyi]

My fav quote from "The Little Prince" by Saint Exupéry: "Here's the box. The sheep that you want is inside." To me this means that abstractions provide flexibility to satisfy many requirements. All classes, methods, types are boxes. Use them. #TheLittlePrince #SoftwareEngineering

[Charles Simonyi @charlessimonyi]

Cauliflower was not just a random word; it matched the melody being worked on. The Cauliflower class should not be random, it should incorporate all that is already known about what is being represented. #cauliflower #pomegranate #SoftwareEngineering

[Charles Simonyi @charlessimonyi]

Programmers should keep in mind Lennon's advice and write Cauliflower() classes and methods until they find the right abstraction to get the project moving. #Something #SoftwareEngineering

[Charles Simonyi @charlessimonyi]

Reading about Lennon suggesting that Harrison sing "Attracts me like a cauliflower" until he "gets the word" breaking the writer's block and pushing the project forward. #Something

[Charles Simonyi @charlessimonyi]

I am planning to tweet on Software Engineering for a while. Please RT to your programmer friends / relatives. #SoftwareEngineering